The Wire: Journey-ing to plant SeaTrees in Indonesia with Pacha Light
Earlier this year, while global travel was still a thing, we traveled to the West Papua Region of Indonesia to launch a brand new mangrove restoration project with our local project partners Eden Projects (all images by Protect Blue).
On the way to Indonesia, we attended the Global Wave Conference in Australia - sharing our plans for the future of SeaTrees with a committed crew of ocean-activists, scoring some cyclone swell on a couple of ECOBOARD sleds from the crew at Firewire (every one of their boards also plants SeaTrees), and meeting the wonderful and inspiring Pacha Light, who promptly joined the small crew we had assembled for the trip to Indonesia.
When I met Michael from Sustainable Surf, I was quickly captivated by the ‘SeaTrees’ initiative - to mitigate our carbon footprint by planting mangroves, seagrass and kelp that in turn supports local communities and teaches the importance of these unique and vital ecosystems.
I was honored to join the ‘SeaTrees’ team and invited to travel along with them to a remote island in Papua to visit and help at a new mangrove reforestation site by Eden Projects. Planting these mangrove ‘prongs’ in the mud, accompanied by the laughter of children playing in the soft waves under the blue tropical sky, was way more fun than any other planting project I’ve been involved with before! - Pacha Light
Planting mangrove propagules with the local village and Eden Projects - you can too
To hear more about our trip with Pacha, Eden Projects and Protect Blue, check out the latest episode of The Wire. The first to be recorded over Zoom. Host, Chris Grow in Southern California and Michael from Sustainable Surf in the hills surrounding San Francisco Bay. (Apple, Spotify).
Here’s a little sample of what you can expect:
- Drinking Fanta with local village elders
- Dodging fallen trees on remote bush tracks
- Pushing local kids into their first waves
- Surfing "gin-clear" uncrowded waves
And:
Planting some of the first mangroves at the newest SeaTrees site with local villagers and Eden Projects, which is:
- Actively helping to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)
- Helping to create sustainable economic activity
- Restoring local ecosystems so that food is more readily available
- Sequesters carbon in the most effective way. Period.
Pacha surfing the iconic "gin-clear" waters of West Papua
Michael planting mangrove propagules.