Florence Durney is a PhD student in the School of Anthropology, University of Arizona. She is the recipient of the 2016 US Fulbright Student Research grant on a project “Marine Protected Areas in East Nusa Tenggara: A comparative Cultural Study.” She had been staying for 3 months in Lamalera and Lembata, East Nusa Tenggara, studying the intersections of coastal community dynamics, livelihood practices, and cultural understandings of environment, with marine protected area (MPA) function in order to analyze MPA management framework creation and success strategies. She hoped that her research would be able to provide inputs for local institutions in developing policies for the successful planning, ongoing management, and integration of MPAs in Indonesia and beyond. Her 9-month project was supported by Universitas Nusa Cendana in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.