The island of Sulawesi is part of the Indonesian Archipelago and is found just South East of Borneo, East of the Indonese capital Jakarta. The research projects are actually carried out on three islands at the bottom of the main island of Sulawesi. Buton and Kabaena are the centres for Tropical Forest projects and marine research is based at Hoga, in the middle of the Wakatobi Marine National Park.
All money raised by volunteers and paid to Operation Wallacea is used by the organisation to support the research centres in Sulawesi, or towards the work of the Operation Wallacea Trust in the local communities. All supplies are sourced locally where at all possible and local people are employed as staff and guides in each centre, and local trades- people build all the buildings used.
Due to logistics and the climate in the region research in Sulawesi can only be carried out between June and October, but during the off-season the centres remain equally busy, open to the local people who can avail of all the same facilities and training as research visitors for little or no cost.