Marine protected area management in Alor depends on knowledge held by local communities, practitioners and managers who have learned through years of working with coastal and marine ecosystems. Much of this expertise has remained informal, locally held and insufficiently recognised. The Alor Marine Protected Area’s Center of Excellence (CoE), hosted by Universitas Tribuana Kalabahi, addresses this gap by making local and traditional scientific knowledge a foundation of its training model. Local practitioners serve as trainers and resource persons alongside academics and technical specialists. Learning combines 70% field practice with 30% theory across four laboratories: community, governance, biodiversity and corporation/private-sector practices. The model connects practical knowledge with research and competency-based learning, allowing experience generated in Alor to be documented, recognised and transferred to protected area managers, students and practitioners from other areas.