Gili conservation projects: who does what, and how to help well

You step off the boat onto Gili Trawangan, and within an hour you have seen three posters. One for a reef project, one for turtles, one asking for a small donation at the dive shop. They all sound good. But who does what?

The short answer: Trawangan, Meno and Air sit inside a government marine park, and around that park work a handful of non-profits and local groups, each with its own focus, from coral and turtles to sharks and waste. This guide sorts them out honestly, so you can support the right thing in the right way, and ask good questions before you give.

The marine park behind all Gili conservation projects

Everything starts with the park. The waters around the three islands were first protected in 1993, under a forestry ministry decree, as a marine nature recreation park. Today the area is called the Gili Matra conservation area (Gili Matra is short for Gili Meno, Air and Trawangan). It is managed by the national marine conservation office in Kupang, known as BKKPN Kupang, under Indonesia's Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.

Its legal basis today is Ministerial Decree No. 34 of 2022, which established the Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan conservation area, together with a management plan that runs from 2023 to 2042. An earlier management plan and zoning system came in 2014, after community consultations facilitated by WCS in 2013 across ten villages. The park is split into zones with different rules, including core zones, tourism and other use zones, and sustainable fisheries zones.

Some numbers are still hard to pin down. An older park document gives a total area of about 2,954 hectares, of which about 2,289 are marine, but sources differ, and we could not find an official figure for the size of the strictly protected zones under the 2022 decree. A 2024 study also found that the rules for using sea space and the rules for conservation do not always match, which makes eco-tourism harder to manage well. We would rather tell you that than give you a neat number we cannot check.

Gili Eco Trust: the oldest name on the islands

Gili Eco Trust is a non-profit based on Gili Trawangan. It grew out of the dive community around 2000 to 2001 (sources differ on the year), when the dive shops began funding a local community patrol group, known as SATGAS. Divers are still asked for a small voluntary contribution with their dives. One summary puts it at around 50,000 rupiah per visit, so ask your dive shop how it works today.

The trust is best known for Biorock. A low-voltage electric current runs through a metal frame, minerals build up on it, and corals can be attached. Its first Biorock structures went in around 2004 to 2005. Counts of how many exist today vary a lot between sources, so we will not give one. The trust has also worked on waste and recycling, including a project where glass bottles are crushed and turned into building materials, and on refill stations and plastic reduction.

Gili Shark Conservation and Gili Matra Bersama

On Gili Air, Gili Shark Conservation runs conservation education, dive training and research, with programmes on sharks and on sea turtles. Gili Matra Bersama is a local foundation whose research pages cover sharks, turtles and coral around the three islands. Both describe their programmes on their own websites. The details change from season to season, so read their current pages and ask them directly what a course or volunteer week includes.

One of the loveliest kinds of work here is turtle photo-identification. Each sea turtle has a unique pattern of scales on the side of its face, so a clear photo tells researchers which turtle it is, without catching or tagging it. The method is used across the Indian Ocean and South-East Asia. Our article on how Gili Air turtles are identified by their faces explains how it works and how a careful snorkeller can help.

Which kind of support really helps?

Not all "conservation" is equal. Some of the most useful work on the Gilis is not glamorous at all: clean-ups, waste sorting, plastic reduction, school programmes, and the quiet monitoring that tells the park authority what is changing. Projects like these rarely make good photos. They make good reefs.

Be careful, too, with tourist "sanctuaries". Ask whether turtles are kept in tanks, whether visitors can hold or feed them, and whether animals are released quickly and properly. Our story about turtles kept in pools has a list of questions you can use. And good conservation shares its results, so ask how the data is used and who receives it.

We also want to be honest about our own footprint. Flying to Lombok has a real climate cost, and the islands' waste and water systems feel every visitor. Staying longer, travelling slower, and spending money with local projects and local people is one way to give back more than you take. It does not cancel the cost.

How to support them well, in practice

Start small. Bring a refillable bottle and say no to single-use plastic. A reusable bottle and a small travel kit make that easy on islands where waste has to be shipped away. Join a clean-up if one is running during your stay. Give the voluntary dive contribution when you dive.

In the water, keep your distance from turtles and never stand on coral. A light long-sleeve rash guard protects your skin with less sunscreen in the water. If you do use sunscreen, our storefront has a list of mineral sunscreens to look at; put it on well before you swim.

If you want to give more time, look for structured courses or programmes led by trained professionals, where you learn real survey methods instead of paying to hold a coral fragment. Before you sign up, ask three things. What will I actually do? Who trained the team? Where does the data go?

Where Ocean Calling stands

We help guests find conservation courses on the Gili Islands that suit their diving level and their values, and we explain what the work can and cannot do. We never promise that a week of volunteering will save a reef, and we never offer encounters that involve touching, holding or feeding wildlife. You can read more on our Gili conservation courses page and in our story about how our matching works.

If this made you curious about the islands, you can look at our Gili Trawangan referral trip, where we match you with a vetted local team and you book with them directly.

Questions people ask

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Wildlife encounters are never guaranteed and never forced. Ocean Calling works only with vetted, ethical local operators, and every animal is free to approach, or not, entirely on its own terms.