Demo Org
So far
villages
trained surveyors
monitored reef sites
of community data
Sari Wattimena
Founder and coordinator
Who we are
Demo Org started in 2019 as a group of fishers and two marine biology graduates in Seram who wanted the reef data that visiting research teams kept taking home.
Today we are a team of eighteen, most of us from the villages we work with. We teach survey methods, run the data platform the villages own, and stand next to village leaders when they take their case to the district.
The team
Sari Wattimena
Founder and coordinator
Yohanis Latuheru
Survey lead
Maria Pattinama
Data and village dashboards
Daniel Sahetapy
Funding and district liaison
Why the villages hold the numbers
Fishers see the reef every day, yet the surveys that decide fishing rules and district budgets were made by people who visited once a year and took the results home.
When the people who depend on a reef measure it themselves, the data stays in the village, the method is trusted, and changes are noticed in weeks rather than years.
What we do
Reef monitoring
Quarterly transect surveys at village reefs, using the same method scientists use.
Community survey teams
Two trained surveyors per village, paid for their time, with women in half the places.
Data the villages own
Results go to a dashboard the villages run, and into their own funding proposals.
In the field
A surveyor checks a site before the transect is laid.
Survey days fit around the fishing calendar, not the other way round.
Each reef site is a short boat ride from its village.
Healthy reef: live coral cover above 40 percent.
Most surveyors fish for a living; the reef is their workplace.
News from the reef
17 October 2026
District fisheries office accepts village reef data
For the first time, the district has agreed to use the villages' own survey results when it reviews fishing rules for south Seram.
17 October 2026
Survey season 2026 opens in six villages
Twelve surveyors are back in the water this month. Each village team surveys three reef sites four times a year, at the same transects, so the numbers can be compared season to se…
The goals we work towards
From the survey teams
I have fished this reef for twenty years. Now I can show the district what I see, in numbers they accept.
Surveyor, Haria
The first time we counted the coral ourselves, the whole village came to the beach to hear the result.
Team lead, Tulehu
We stopped waiting for researchers. When the storm hit, we had the damage measured within two weeks.
Surveyor, Saparua
Working with
Seram village councils
Maluku fishers network
Coastal data commons (demo)
Reef method exchange (demo)
Survey season opens in March
Each village trains two new surveyors before the season starts. Organisations that want to send an observer for a week are welcome — write to us before February.
Work with us
We are looking for partners who fund community-led monitoring, and for organisations running similar programmes elsewhere who want to compare methods.
Get in touch
Jl. Pantai 12, Masohi, Central Maluku, Indonesia