Maria Sherlly joined GGGI in February 2021 as Indonesia’s Senior Assistant for Papua Province. Sherlly, as she is usually called, has a lot of experience under her belt working in Papua on natural resource conservation, sustainable development, advocacy and stakeholder engagement. Graduated with a communication degree from Indonesia Open University (Universitas Terbuka), Sherlly also has expertise in project management as well as planning for monitoring and evaluation.

Prior to joining GGGI, Sherlly worked at WWF Indonesia’s Papua office from 2008 to 2020, holding several positions including Communication and Marketing, as well as Communication and Environmental Education. She also served the LESTARI Consortium as the Field Coordinator Landscapes Cyclops, and Policy and Advocacy Specialist. Sherlly was also known in Papua as a freelancer, serving the Papua’s Regional Committee on Climate Change to assist the committee in organizing and facilitating workshops, writing reports and authoring an educational book on sustainable development.

In her spare time, Sherlly loves making handicrafts, reading as many books as possible, learning new things, and donating her energy and mind to a local youth community for food security and other social activities.