Our marine conservation organisation

Coral Guardian has been restoring colors to oceans since 2012.

Our story

Coral Guardian is a non-governmental organisation. Since 2012, we have been working internationally and with local communities to protect coral ecosystems.

2012 Creation of Coral Guardian

After a year in Indonesia, where Martin Colognoli, a marine biologist and co-founder of the organization, was working in a business exporting corals and other marine wildlife. There, he discovers practices that are harmful to the natural environment, to animals and also to humans. Based on this first experience, we launch the first coral reef conservation project thanks to the participative program “Adopt a Coral” allowing anyone to contribute to the protection of our ocean. Coral Guardian was born.

2013 Research and Development

Based in Indonesia, during those first few years we continuously worked on improving our techniques on projects around Bali with various methods such as rope, concrete and ceramics. The use of rope, as an example, proved very complicated because of the strong ocean currents in that area. We found that the technique that proved to be the most efficient was fixing corals with stainless steel wire onto metallic frames which were easy to make.

2015 Launch of the pilot project in Indonesia, on Hatamin island

Having gained extensive experience with the implementation of several test programs on the islands of Bali, Gili Trawangan and Nusa Penida, we then launched our first participatory marine conservation pilot project on the Hatamin archipelago in Indonesia, by directly engaging locals on the ground.

2019 Spreading our participatory model

After 7 years of operation, we began offering other small organizations around the world to grow by benefiting from Coral Guardian’s expertise. The aim is to spread our model of participative marine conservation around the world following the great success of our conservation program developed on Hatamin island.

2020 Launch of our Mediterranean Sea project in Spain

We launched our first project, in collaboration with the local organization Coral Soul. This project, Deep CORE, is located in Punta de la Mona, in Spain, and one of the first participatory marine conservation programs in the Mediterranean Sea.

2024 Launch of the REEL project in the Indian Ocean, in Kenya

For the first time, we are supporting a coral restoration project in Africa—more specifically in Kenya. For this initiative, we are working in collaboration with the local organisation Oceans Alive.
This programme aims to regenerate damaged coral reefs in Kilifi, in order to support sustainable, food-providing fisheries.

2025 Launch of the Coral Connect

We launched the Coral Connect, a free community open to all project leaders, designed to learn, share, and collaborate around coral reef restoration. The Coral Connect offers free training, spaces for exchange with coral restoration practitioners, a wide range of resources, and collaborative activities to move forward together.

“My professional career began in Indonesia as a manager in an export company dealing with corals and other marine animals for the aquarium trade. I was quickly disillusioned when I realised that I was taking part in a legal plundering and poaching of marine life that I cherished so much. This experience made me realise that humans are drawing on natural resources without giving anything back. So I co-founded the nonprofit Coral Guardian at that time. The main idea was to protect coral ecosystems through working with the people who depend on them, in this case traditional fishermen fighting for their food sovereignty.”

Martin Colognoli, co-founder of Coral Guardian

Our impact reports

2024 impact report 2023 impact report 2022 impact report 2021 impact report 2020 impact report 2019 impact report 2018 activity report 2017 activity report Available in French only. 2016 activity report Available in French only. 2015 activity report Available in French only. 2014 activity report Available in French only. 2013 activity report Available in French only.

Our team

France

Employé·e·s Bénévoles

Neyda Radouane Director

Florina Jacob Field and scientific project manager

Florence Lacrosse Coral Connect Project Manager

Juliette Villechanoux Coral Connect roject officer

Solène Jonveaux Scientific Manager

Paola Ravon Communications & Outreach Manager

Apolline Eschbach Head of Development

Romain Bernard President

Caroline Bourgeois General Secretary

Julien Holleville Treasurer

Corinne Copin Member of the executive board

Anne-Sophie Mouraud Member of the executive board

Coco Tamlyn Member of the executive board

Carole Petetin Graphic Designer

Vladimir Ospina Project management

Solène Ollivier Coral Reef Ecologist

Laura Toffolo Graphic Designer

Yann Farines IT Expert

Julien Brochard Developer

Maxime Beraud Fish data analyst

Nessim Kleiche Biological data analyst

Grégory Collin Developer

Coral Guardian Ethical Charter

At Coral Guardian, we firmly believe in the protection and preservation of coral ecosystems. Our organisation is guided by fundamental ethical principles that steer all our actions. This ethical charter sets out our commitments to the planet, local communities, and our partners, while reflecting our dedication to integrity, transparency, and sustainability.

Our ethical charter