Biodiversity Nature Resort Raja Ampat
Raja Ampat Biodiversity is the ultimate Eco-Concept resort and supports “green-diving” to the fullest and is proud to be one of the most important eco resorts in Raja Ampat. The resort is located on a sandy white beach, known locally as Pantai Yenanas, just at the entrance to Kabui Bay, a famous bay studded with some of the most spectacular sandy white beaches you can imagine. On the east coast, the island also has enormous towering cliffs, bizarre rock formations and a lush rain forest. At low tide you can walk to nearby beaches or just relax in your private hammock in the peace and quiet.
This resort is as close to paradise as you can ever hope to be. With three different types of rooms to choose from, there is something to suit every budget. Each hut has been built by local craftsman from the neighboring villages using local sustainably sourced materials. The cottages have been arranged along the property to cause the least disturbance to flora and fauna and blend in with the natural surroundings. All of the cottages are located on the beach front with stunning sea views. Each has its own balcony with a hammock and sunbeds on the beach.Each cottage is equipped with a water dispenser, a mosquito net, multiple plugs to charge electronics and towels for bathing and swimming. In contrast of other resorts of the area, all the bathrooms have fresh water for showers.
There is a main restaurant and meeting point where you will enjoy tasty meals, right on the beach. Forget about wearing shoes or even sandals here. You will feel the sand under your feet while you savor your meals, feeling uniquely immersed in nature. The cook mostly creates traditional Indonesian food, along with some international dishes. All the meals are prepared with fresh ingredients, bought from the local market in Waisai town, just 40 minutes away. Local fishermen often bring their catch straight to the resort, so you can always enjoy fresh fish. At the restaurant, there is hot water for unlimited coffee and tea to stay awake and enjoy this paradise as much as possible. In addition, you will enjoy fresh drinking water and a refrigerator stocked with beer, soft drinks and juices available for purchase.
Diving! Raja Ampat is one of few marine environments anyplace, where you can see marine life in its full range of glory. The resort is right in the heart of Dampier Strait, only a few minutes away of the most famous dive sites of Raja Ampat. Sharks, manta rays, batfish, groupers, pygmy seahorse, schooling jacks, barracudas, fusiliers, pale-tailed surgeonfish, goatfish, giant six-banded angelfish, and purple and threadfin anthias–all these and more add to the panoply of color.
Hiding in the cracks and crevices of the reef are the occasional banded pipefish, plus white-eyed and even giant morays. Titan triggerfish can be spotted feeding on chunks of hard coral. Not to mention slender fusiliers, and green and blue damsels. Let’s not forget about Napoleon wrasse, whitetip and blacktip reef sharks, groupers, snappers… Just off the reef, keep an eye open for redtooth triggerfish and hundreds of schooling bannerfish.
The area’s reefs are brimming with both hard and soft corals. In the dive sites close to the resort, they are abundant, with lots of gigantic mushroom leather corals, purple soft corals and sea squirts. Hard table corals, staghorn patches, green and brown elkhorn and finger corals cover the substrate, along with brown soft coral bushes and hydrozoans.
In the deeper sections of the reef you will find large pink, lilac and purple gorgonian fans, bushes of bright red sea whips, and sea fans, presenting a dazzling assortment of colors. Look for small green sea pens, spiky blue-jade tube sponges, and brown hydrozoans and giant tridachna clams (over 100 years old and quite a rarity!). Nestled among the anemones, you’ll find porcelain crabs!
Kayaking and exploring the surrounding environment’s rich biodiversity is a must. The rugged shoreline of Gam Island, the offshore islands, and the pristine headlands and deep bays, offer countless kayak adventures. Within a short paddle from the resort you can reach Batu Lima Island and Friwen Island, where you can visit Friwin village. It is also a short paddle across to Yenbeser Village.
The resort also offers half and full day excursions to neighboring islands, yoga classes, bird watching and jungle treks.
Hiding in the cracks and crevices of the reef are the occasional banded pipefish, plus white-eyed and even giant morays. Titan triggerfish can be spotted feeding on chunks of hard coral. Not to mention slender fusiliers, and green and blue damsels. Let’s not forget about Napoleon wrasse, whitetip and blacktip reef sharks, groupers, snappers… Just off the reef, keep an eye open for redtooth triggerfish and hundreds of schooling bannerfish.
The area’s reefs are brimming with both hard and soft corals. In the dive sites close to the resort, they are abundant, with lots of gigantic mushroom leather corals, purple soft corals and sea squirts. Hard table corals, staghorn patches, green and brown elkhorn and finger corals cover the substrate, along with brown soft coral bushes and hydrozoans.
In the deeper sections of the reef you will find large pink, lilac and purple gorgonian fans, bushes of bright red sea whips, and sea fans, presenting a dazzling assortment of colors. Look for small green sea pens, spiky blue-jade tube sponges, and brown hydrozoans and giant tridachna clams (over 100 years old and quite a rarity!). Nestled among the anemones, you’ll find porcelain crabs!
Kayaking and exploring the surrounding environment’s rich biodiversity is a must. The rugged shoreline of Gam Island, the offshore islands, and the pristine headlands and deep bays, offer countless kayak adventures. Within a short paddle from the resort you can reach Batu Lima Island and Friwen Island, where you can visit Friwin village. It is also a short paddle across to Yenbeser Village.
The resort also offers half and full day excursions to neighboring islands, yoga classes, bird watching and jungle treks.
Raja Ampat Biodiversity Eco Resort is located on Gam island in Indonesia‘s West Papua province, in the Raja Ampat Archipelago. The resort is roughly 50 miles from the main airport in the area, Sorong.
The easiest way to get to Raja Ampat is to fly to Sorong via Jakarta, Makassar, Ambon or Manado. For most of these connections you can use Lion Air, Xpress Airlines, Sriwijaya Airlines, Nam Airlines or Garuda Indonesia airlines. There are no direct international flights to West Papua Province. After arriving at Sorong Airport, you have several options for reaching Raja Ampat Biodiversity Resort: by daily public ferry, from Sorong to Waisai, the main city of Raja Ampat and close to the resort or by private speed boat (on one of their boats).
The easiest way to get to Raja Ampat is to fly to Sorong via Jakarta, Makassar, Ambon or Manado. For most of these connections you can use Lion Air, Xpress Airlines, Sriwijaya Airlines, Nam Airlines or Garuda Indonesia airlines. There are no direct international flights to West Papua Province. After arriving at Sorong Airport, you have several options for reaching Raja Ampat Biodiversity Resort: by daily public ferry, from Sorong to Waisai, the main city of Raja Ampat and close to the resort or by private speed boat (on one of their boats).
In addition to the following green efforts at the resort. The resort promotes safe diver and snorkeler practices by: not selling shell or coral local crafts, promoting the use of reef safe sun screens, safely disposing of trash, regularly doing beach clean ups, using mooring lines only on the house reef, fishing by line caught fish and no reef fish, and maintaining a Coral Nursery to help with reef restoration.
Biodiversity Eco Resort has started its first coral nursery with initial results showing the house reef to be an ideal location in which to grow corals. The first phase of the project is to provide a better environment for broken coral fragments to grow. This proved to be a great success and the nursery now grows small coral fragments from healthy corals, therefore, producing healthy and genetic strong corals that are more resistant to rising sea temperatures. A new larger tree was designed and became the new platform for both rescue corals and healthy coral fragments.
Sea Turtle Monitoring - Our aim is to record as much information as we can every time we see a Turtle, where we see it, what it is doing and hopefully identify if it is a turtle we have seen in this area before.
There are more and more methods being developed to identify individual turtles. It was not that long ago discovered that the pattern of the scutes on the sides of the heads of green turtles is distinct to each individual like a finger print.
This is the first phase of a multi-tiered project. Once we have tested and had success with logging methods with our guests we will look to broaden the project area buy training other resorts and liveaboards in the area to also report and log their turtle sightings. The long term aim of this project is to aid efforts in the correct protection of Sea Turtles in the area and encourage the local community to aid in their protection, which in turn will provide livelihoods for future generations.
Community Projects - Biodiversity Eco Resort is a great believer in communities and supporting the local community as much as they can. Raja Ampat is luckier than other areas of Indonesia in that the local community is aware of the value of their environment and the need to look after it in order to support their way of life. Having said this there are still areas that the community needs support in to further improve their way of life and ensure long term and sustainable tourism for future generations. With this in mind we have undertaken, several programs to support the future generations of Raja Ampat.
English Teacher - Remote locations prove difficult to provide full educational systems to and implementation of full curricular limited. Biodiversity Eco Resort employs a Full time English teacher for the local Yenbeser Village School. His main role is to teach English to the school children in the mornings and to their families in the evenings.
Biodiversity Eco Resort has started its first coral nursery with initial results showing the house reef to be an ideal location in which to grow corals. The first phase of the project is to provide a better environment for broken coral fragments to grow. This proved to be a great success and the nursery now grows small coral fragments from healthy corals, therefore, producing healthy and genetic strong corals that are more resistant to rising sea temperatures. A new larger tree was designed and became the new platform for both rescue corals and healthy coral fragments.
Sea Turtle Monitoring - Our aim is to record as much information as we can every time we see a Turtle, where we see it, what it is doing and hopefully identify if it is a turtle we have seen in this area before.
There are more and more methods being developed to identify individual turtles. It was not that long ago discovered that the pattern of the scutes on the sides of the heads of green turtles is distinct to each individual like a finger print.
This is the first phase of a multi-tiered project. Once we have tested and had success with logging methods with our guests we will look to broaden the project area buy training other resorts and liveaboards in the area to also report and log their turtle sightings. The long term aim of this project is to aid efforts in the correct protection of Sea Turtles in the area and encourage the local community to aid in their protection, which in turn will provide livelihoods for future generations.
Community Projects - Biodiversity Eco Resort is a great believer in communities and supporting the local community as much as they can. Raja Ampat is luckier than other areas of Indonesia in that the local community is aware of the value of their environment and the need to look after it in order to support their way of life. Having said this there are still areas that the community needs support in to further improve their way of life and ensure long term and sustainable tourism for future generations. With this in mind we have undertaken, several programs to support the future generations of Raja Ampat.
English Teacher - Remote locations prove difficult to provide full educational systems to and implementation of full curricular limited. Biodiversity Eco Resort employs a Full time English teacher for the local Yenbeser Village School. His main role is to teach English to the school children in the mornings and to their families in the evenings.
