The first article, in issue #132, focused on Mark Erdmann, Vice President of Asia Pacific Marine Programmes for Conservation International (CI) and architect of the innovative, broad-based, bottom-up strategy that underpins conservation efforts in the region. Central to Erdmann’s approach was the need to quantify Raja Ampat’s extraordinary biodiversity. The person who played a pivotal and sustained role in that critical undertaking was Gerry Allen, whose contributions have been instrumental in shaping the conservation narrative of this incredible area.

In just over 20 years, Raja Ampat, the “Four Kings” of Indonesia’s remote West Papua province, has evolved from an almost unknown location into one of the world’s most sought-after tropical diving destinations. Back in 2005, when I first visited the area, diving options were limited to just a few liveaboards and a couple of land-based “eco” resorts—essentially beach camps.

My introduction to this incredible region traces back to 1999 when I stumbled upon a post in an online underwater photography bulletin board (anybody remember them?). The author of the post was trying to assemble a group of like-minded divers for a trip to a newly established “eco beach camp” on Kri Island—providing an opportunity to explore the recently discovered dive sites in the Dampier Strait.

Located in the far east of the vast Indonesian archipelago of almost 18,000 islands, Raja Ampat has truly captured the imagination of the global diving community, with tales of the underwater adventures that abound there.

Situated within the Coral Triangle, West Papua has been coined the Bird’s Head Seascape and is considered the world's premier epicenter of marine biodiversity. Bird’s Head Seascape lies above a tectonic plate convergence zone, making it one of the most geologically active places on Earth. The currents of the Pacific Ocean flow through this region, bringing in rich nutrients and creating an environment, which cultivates extreme marine diversity.

The incredible reefs and tremendous biodiversity of the Raja Ampat area have made this remote part of the Indonesian archipelago one of the hottest dive locations in the world, and those currents are the very lifeblood of the area. For they carry the rich nutrients from the deep basins of the Pacific Ocean to the northwest of Raja Ampat and have helped to create what are generally considered to be the finest coral reef ecosystems in the world.