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Siân Williams came to Gili Trawangan in 2012 for a six-week course. Thirteen years later, she’s still here running coral propagation projects, leading the only all-female turtle ranger team in Indonesia, and hosting the weekly beach clean that started as a tiny experiment between three dive friends and grew into a 12-year community staple.

In this episode, we sit down to talk about what it actually looks like to build a conservation life on a tiny tropical island. This includes the magic, the burnout, the trash dump that keeps growing, and the constant tension between tourism’s love of paradise and paradise’s struggle to stay afloat. Siân is full of honesty, humor, and the kind of fiery passion that makes you want to drop everything and become a marine conservationist yourself.

This episode is for anyone who:

• Has ever gone somewhere “for a week” and accidentally stayed for years

• Loves turtles, corals, beach cleans, or all of the above

• Is curious about the realities — financial, emotional, physical — of working in conservation

• Wants to know how to get involved on a holiday, rather than just being a tourist

• Has felt the imposter syndrome of “I should be doing more” in environmental work

• Cares about the question of what actually happens to your trash after you throw it “away”

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why Siân chose Gili T over every other island, and why we love it so much

• The realities of working as a dive instructor while building a conservation career on the side

• What the Gili Eco Trust does, from Biorock reefs to waste management to turtle protection

• Why head-starting turtles (raising hatchlings in tanks) sounds great on paper but is a major no-no

• How Proyek Penyu’s all-female ranger team is changing turtle conservation in Indonesia

• Why beach cleans matter, even when they don’t “solve” the plastic crisis

• The OceanQuest Global coral propagation method, and why it’s so beginner-friendly

• How tourists can actually contribute, even on a 3-day trip

• Why Siân is majorly hopeful for the future of our oceans

Episode Highlights & Timestamps

• (00:00) Meeting Siân and her many roles at the Gili Eco Trust
• (01:20) “Six weeks turned into six months” — how Siân first landed on Gili T in 2012
• (06:08) The dark side of paradise: tourism, trash, and what happens when the beauty gets harder to maintain
• (13:38) From dive instructor to full-time conservation: salaries, side hustles, and the truth about working in this field
• (17:29) The history of the Gili Eco Trust and Biorock (now 185+ structures and counting!)
• (19:29) Proyek Penyu and the problem with head-starting turtles
• (28:13) Why building local stewardship in marine conservation is everything
• (33:12) Indonesia’s only all-female turtle ranger team
• (46:04) Debris Free Friday: how a weekly beach clean became a 12-year community ritual
• (53:20) Coral propagation with OceanQuest Global and why anyone can do it

Key Quotes from the Episode

“A beach clean is a band-aid on a flesh wound. It’s gratifying short-term, but the lasting impact is on the cleaners. Once you’ve picked up a couple of vapes or cigarette butts on the beach, you start thinking differently.”

Links We Mentioned

• Gili Eco Trust — the organization Siân works with on Gili T

• Proyek Penyu — the turtle conservation project Siân leads

• Biorock technology — the electrified reef restoration method Delphine Robbe brought to Gili T

• OceanQuest Global — the coral propagation method Siân now teaches

• GIDA (Gili Island Dive Association)

• SatGas — the local group that proceeded the Gili Eco Trust, founded in 1999

• The Story of Stuff — the short animated video on consumption and waste that will alter your brain chemistry

• Trawangan Dive Center — where Siân first volunteered and later worked, and where I did my instructor course

• Debris Free Friday — the weekly beach clean, every Friday 5–6pm

Connect with Siân & Get Involved:

🌴 Visit the Gili Eco Trust in person if you’re ever on Gili T

🐢 Follow Proyek Penyu on Instagram for turtle release alerts and nesting updates

🗑️ Join a Debris Free Friday beach clean — every Friday, 5pm to 6pm

🎯 Sign up to be a Turtle Tracker (early morning beach walks looking for nests, training once a month)

🪸 Take a coral propagation course with Siân — there’s a half-day version that doesn’t even require diving Look into the

💚 Eco Warrior internships if you’re a grad/master’s student wanting hands-on research experience

Enjoyed This Episode?

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And come hang out with me on Instagram! I’d love to hear what landed for you in this one.