Titouan Bernicot founded Coral Gardeners, a nonprofit driving coral reef restoration, at just 18 years old. He was born on a pearl farm on a small atoll, a ring-shaped coral island, in French Polynesia. Instead of playing in the dirt with neighborhood friends after school, Bernicot, the only kid on the little atoll, spent his childhood in the water, immersed in the colorful and flourishing life around him (1). With no shops or markets, the community sustained themselves only with what the island had to offer, therefore relying on a thriving local ecosystem. “A really connected-to-nature way of living” says Bernicot (2). Largely disconnected from the rest of the human world but uniquely integrated with the natural one.
