Badi has many years of experience in research and coastal resources management, and has collaborated with government institutions, NGOs, academe, local government units and fisher-folks at various levels and capacities since 1995. He specializes in coral reef fish ecology and has been part of numerous projects on marine protected areas assessment and evaluation. He was a research fellow with the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation and lead the reef fish survey team during the Global Reef Expedition through over 9 territories from the Eastern Pacific (Galapaos) through to the Indian Ocean (British Indian Ocean Territory) from 2012 to 2015. His post-graduate project focused on marine protected areas and looked into trajectories of change in the fish and benthic communities using space for time substitution.