Repository on Coastal Ecosystems: Bridging Artistic, Scientific and Community-led Practices in the Riau Archipelago

Developed as an online educational tool for researchers, practitioners, policymakers, educators, students, and wider publics, the repository gathers and connects different forms of knowledge relating to mangroves and coral reefs. It aims to initiate and support transdisciplinary dialogue, exchange, and education on the importance of coastal ecosystems, the pressures they face, and the practices through which they are cared for and restored.

Bringing together scientific research, community-based knowledge, and environmentally engaged artistic and cultural practices, the repository places these different ways of knowing in conversation without presenting one as more authoritative than another. Scientific resources, oral histories, field documentation, video interviews, artistic projects, and best-practice examples of mangrove restoration and coral transplantation make up the content of the repository and are connected with each other through shared places and ecological concerns. In doing so, the repository makes existing coastal stewardship more visible while keeping knowledge attributed to the people and communities through whom it is generated.

The repository is supported by the Ministry of Education, Singapore, under its Academic Research Fund Tier 3 Award (MOE-MOET32022-0006), through Nanyang Technological University’s Climate Transformation Programme, and Academic Research Fund Tier 1 Grant (RG129/24). It is led by Principal Investigator Professor Ute Meta Bauer, with Research Fellow Joshua Gebert, Research Associate Mei Jia Ng (until February 2026), Research Assistant Angela Hoten and visiting fellow Madeleine Collie (13 October – 12 December 2025) under the MoE Academic Research Fund Tier 3 Grant, and with Research Assistant Liz Liu Yihui, under the Academic Research Fund Tier 1 Grant (RG129/24).

Browse the database HERE