Emergency measures to save coral reefs from impending extinction
BY SAVING THE CORALS WE ALSO SAVE THE PLANET
Corals are vital for life on Earth, providing food for coastal communities as they give homes for fish, crabs, octopus, and a myriad of other creatures. Coral reefs also help construct our world by building islands and beaches and by protecting shorelines from wave impacts. Corals are fragile and are among the most sensitive of all living beings to environmental pollution, negative tourism impacts, and overfishing. As if that were not enough, corals reefs are also the most sensitive of all marine ecosystems to climate change, and scientists predict that coral reefs will be the first marine ecosystem to collapse from rapidly warming seas in the coming few decades. This vital and most diverse marine ecosystem on Earth is now on the front-line of the present environmental crisis.
C4C works with heat adapted “super corals” that do not bleach white and die in the warming waters, giving hope for the future of coral reefs. Saving coral reefs is essential in averting the predicted climate change driven mass extinction of species and ecosystems of the planet. If we can save coral reefs, the seagrass, mangrove, and coastal ecosystems which they protect will then also be saved. This success will in turn nurture hope that we can save the other threatened ecosystems of the planet as well! Coral reefs are where we must now hold the line. The first domino must not be allowed to fall! Everyone should become involved on some level with solving the climate crisis, in order to save the natural diversity of this precious Earth.
THE CHALLENGE
Without a widespread change in human behaviour, coral reefs have little hope for surviving into the future. If people are the cause of the problem, people must also be the source of the solution. C4C works with indigenous communities, the tourism industry, and government to help corals through this time of crisis, protecting and restoring corals and reef resources that each stakeholder relies on but often takes for granted. Restoring the natural balance, abundance, biodiversity, and climate resilience of coastal ecosystems in turn secures and increases community prosperity from the standpoints of food production, trade, and tourism, and promoting equitable benefits sharing between the tourism industry and indigenous fishing communities. While it will be a challenge to carry out these methods on a more massive scale, and while there is no single ‘quick fix’ solution, the tourism industry and reef using communities have proven receptive and ready to participate.
Involving people and industry in saving the reefs
OUR MISSION
Our work is focused on the bigger issue of saving coral reefs from human inflicted abuses: climate change and the impacts of overfishing and pollution. Although coral reefs are facing serious problems, our coral gardening methods present a practical solution that promise to keep corals alive into the coming decades. To achieve our mission, C4C has a clear focus on climate change commitment with a holistic approach in three dimensions: Coral Gardening for Bleaching Resistance, Community Involvement in Marine Protected Areas, and Resort Partnerships for Mainstreaming the Strategies.
COMMUNITY
INVOLVEMENT
RESORT
PARTNERSHIPS
CORAL
RESTORATION
A NEW PARADIGM
We need to accelerate our work to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for a better future for our coral reefs. Our ambition is to contribute to the SDG agenda in three dimensions: community empowerment, coral reef management, and regenerative tourism. To secure key reef ecosystem services, preserve socio-cultural values associated with the reef, preserve marine biodiversity, while researching, applying, and training in reef ecological processes and restoration techniques.
DECADE OF ACTION (2021-2030)
UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development
“CORAL REEF RESTORATION AS A STRATEGY TO IMPROVE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES” is the first UNEP document on coral restoration ever published, and features our work in the South Pacific Ocean as one of six case study sites for coral reef restoration. Download here the UNEP and ICRI report: A Guide to Coral Restoration Methods.
OUR PROGRAM
VISION
C4C works to reverse coral reef degradation and environmental decline by supporting sustainable alternative livelihoods among reef-using communities setting aside no-take tabu areas, and by promoting the active involvement of the tourism industry in coral reef restoration and conservation. As part of this work, we develop community-appropriate and sustainable income generating enterprises designed to shift the burden away from over-used and depleted fisheries resources.
FOCUS
A focus of our program is to create ‘coral gardener’ as a new skill and profession for resorts and NGOs, and to train these coral reef professionals to effectively restore bleaching resistant corals to dead and declining reefs zones in their areas of operation. The program builds a more thorough understanding of the impacts of climate change, and how to combat these impacts, highlighting the importance of no-take areas and of nurturing heat adapted corals.
GOAL
The wider goal is to involve coastal communities and tourism industry in coral reef restoration and management. With the specific goal of creating pockets of bleaching resistance, from which resilience can then spread throughout the ecosystem through natural processes.
WHERE
Our priority training sites are located in Fiji, with extension sites and partnerships in Kiribati, Tuvalu, Samoa, Vanuatu, and French Polynesia.
Together, we can protect coral reefs and help sustain marine biodiversity
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT FOR TRANSFORMATION
We work to reinforce participatory community decision making and youth leadership in tackling the climate and coral reef crises. Our skilled community officers facilitate a participatory planning process through which customary users and owners of the coral reefs create management plans that include setting aside rotational no-fishing “tabu” areas, permanent no-take zones, subsistence zones, and commercial fishing zones. Waste management issues are dealt with and alternative livelihoods are introduced to replace over-reliance on fishing as the major economic activity, including small scale poultry farming, seaweed farming, coconut products, and soap making. Coral gardening is used as an educational activity and in support of community-based tourism and reef guide businesses. Healthy coral reefs with bleaching resistant coral populations will be more resilient to climate change.
PROVIDING AWARENESS AND HOPE
Without immediate intervention, our precious coral reef ecosystems could be gone within 30 years. As coral gardeners, we work on the leading edge of a planetary crisis. Corals growing and thriving in spite of the threats is encouraging to all. We have the opportunity now to use the coral reef crisis and our hopeful work with corals to create awareness in others of the need for bigger solutions.
Working together for the future of coral reefs
TOURISM-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
The tourism industry of the South Pacific is dependent on coral reefs for their business, and this industry has the most to lose from the loss of coral reefs. Many resorts recognize this connection, and when approached are willing to invest in hiring trained professional coral gardeners as permanent staff. Coral gardeners are also trained to interact with the indigenous reef using communities and to work with them to create permanent no-take areas around resorts, hiring fish wardens from the community for enforcement and to assist the coral gardeners, while providing meaningful jobs. Coral reef restoration can be a useful tool if well integrated into a community-based management framework and to support tourism. The tourism industry is uniquely situated to contribute to climate action and the conservation of coral reefs. Our approach mainstreams the work into the primary industry, in areas where national governments do not have the resources to support national parks and conservation officers.
REASONING
Coral reefs all over the Earth are facing widespread bleaching and death from warming seas due to climate change. Our coral reef restoration strategy works to accelerate natural recovery and climate change adaptation processes of coral reefs, securing bleaching resistant corals where they are facing eminent demise, and restoring heavily impacted reef zones where severe bleaching has killed many or most of the corals. The opportunity is now, and if we do not act, our options will fall away with each passing year. It is time for all those who rely on healthy coral reefs to begin working together to protect and restore the shared resources that are so important to tourism and food security. Join our cause!
INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSES
Corals for Conservation, a Fiji-registered non-profit, has partnered with Plantation Island Resort to create a training and demonstration program for ecologically-based Coral Gardening for Climate Change Adaptation.
The goal of our program is to offer affordable on-site training to build skills and a deeper understanding among coral reef professionals in coral reef restoration ecology and diverse restoration methods. Which will in turn enable them to more effectively restore bleaching resistant corals to coral reefs in their areas of operation. The course is designed to help elevate “Coral Gardening” into a recognized and certified profession.
CORAL RESTORATION FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION TRAINING COURSE
Gardening bleaching resistant "Super Corals" and outplanting strategies to help coral reefs adapt to climate change.
CORAL RESTORATION ADVANCED COURSE
A specialized training and intership program designed for coral reef conservation professionals.