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Qgroup Supports the Next-Generation Coral Reef Restoration Projects in Indonesia

By attaching low-voltage direct current to underwater steel structures, Gili Eco Trust creates more resilient coral, fast-growing coral structures.

In Lombok, Indonesia, Gili Eco Trust is working towards creating a sustainable island where tourism works in cohort with the environment and animals by creating the next-generation reefs and replenishing fish populations. The core idea is to combine the new technological advancements in reef restoration with a holistic approach to making the 1000 people island-community sustainable regarding recycling and material use.

Qgroup recognizes this effort as a pilot project on a new approach to combining tourism with a sustainable society. The island’s environmental challenges are enormous today, with global warming, waste management, and overfishing, just to mention a few.

The Eco Trust started in 2002 and has, over the years, created 35 different biorocks, which are artificial reefs, that today are bringing new life to the underwater world around the island. The biorock technology is a novel technique in which specially designed underwater steel structures are placed on the seafloor (5-25 meters) with low voltage direct current continuously passing through them. By doing this, new coral reefs are growing faster and becoming more resilient to coral bleaching and global warming than natural formations. This, in turn, allows the natural fauna of sea life to recover to what it once was around the islands.

As well as implementing this new technology, the trust is also educating and collaborating with local entrepreneurs to use a modern approach to waste management and fishing limits in a joint cause to maximize the common profit.

To support this project, Qgroup initially supported three volunteers with dive equipment to allow them to become underwater reef gardeners and biorock students in the Eco Trust program. The volunteer program starts in May 2023 and reaches over three months.

More news to follow this summer! Please follow @qoraladventure on Instagram or check the TEDx Talk Restoring the Gili Islands’ Coral Reefs for more information about the Biorock technology and everyday work.