The Bird’s Head Seascape (BHS) sits in the global epicentre of marine biodiversity—in the Coral Triangle, in northwest Papua Barat, Indonesia. With over 1,600 recorded species of coral reef fishes and more than 600 species of hard coral, the BHS has the highest coral reef diversity recorded for an area of its size anywhere in the world.A guiding principle of the BHS initiative has always been that biodiversity conservation and human well-being must go hand-unhand in order to succeed. At the center of this ambitious initiative
is the establishment and implementation of a multiple-use network of marine protected areas (MPAs) that is supported by and embedded in local and national legislation and co-managed by local communities and local government agencies.