See full version: Efforts that have been made to save coral reefs
The fate of coral reefs might be decided in the next 25 years, but if the global coral reef conservation community can establish 45 Adaptive Reefscapes around the world by the year 2045, we estimate that we can save enough corals that they can continue to build reefs and provide benefits to people and wildlife throughout nearly all the world’s coral reefs.
One day the world’s coral reefs will have adapted to climate change because we acted swiftly.
Our core values guide our organization ensuring that we build alliances to find real-world conservation solutions to saving coral reefs and are good stewards of all that we are entrusted with. We hold ourselves accountable for creating lasting change and are continuously testing, applying, and sharing the best, innovative ideas for saving coral reefs. Our staff shares a spirit of camaraderie and allegiance to each other and our mission of saving coral reefs. more
As climate change started to impact reefs, CORAL realized that it had to do more if it wanted to achieve its mission to save coral reefs- it had to start acting both locally and globally. So CORAL launched a pioneering research project to define a science-based, global solution that would save reefs and preserve their benefits for people and wildlife. With knowledge from this research project, CORAL created an innovative approach called Adaptive Reefscapes that facilitates the environment to allow corals to adapt in the era of climate change. [links]
CORAL came into existence because of the reverence and wonderment that people have for corals and the beautiful environments they create. This appreciation soon turned into a mission to galvanize the SCUBA diving community to take action to protect coral reefs. This small band of coral enthusiasts soon realized it wouldn’t be able to take on the task of protecting coral reefs alone, so CORAL began forging collaborative partnerships with the people who are most closely connected to coral reefs. here
The Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL) is a non-profit, environmental NGO that is on a mission to save the world’s coral reefs. We work collaboratively with communities to reduce direct threats to reefs in ways that provide long-term benefits to people and wildlife. In parallel, CORAL is actively expanding the scientific understanding of how corals adapt to climate change and is applying this information to give reefs the best chance to thrive for generations to come. Our broad expertise uniquely positions us to rally the conservation community around scalable and effective solutions for coral reefs around the world. here
But much remains to be done, and we are currently planning expeditions that will guide our path forward. In Brazil, we will document the seamounts of the North Brazilian Chain and visit the recently discovered Amazon Reefs. An expedition undertaken in partnership with the Canadian government will explore the Gulf of St. Lawrence and, among other efforts, look for deep sea corals. In both countries, these expeditions will obtain new data and images – information that can then be used to advocate for the protection of these vulnerable habitats. [links]
Oceana’s victories have helped protect corals around the world. We improved law enforcement in the Tañon Strait in the Philippines – home to 65 percent of all the coral species in that country. In Belize, we protected the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef by ending bottom trawling in that country’s waters and fighting against offshore oil exploration. In the United States, we fought for – and won – deep sea coral habitat protections in the Atlantic. All told, we have protected more than 9,000,000 square kilometers of ocean, from the Tañon Strait in the Philippines to Gorringe Bank in Portugal to Salas y Gomez in Chile. [links]
But reefs also face destruction from localized threats. Destructive fishing gear, pollution, sedimentation, nutrient runoff and other water quality issues can all cause significant damage to corals. Deep sea corals can be demolished by bottom trawls. Cyanide fishing – used in the capture of aquarium fish – can poison reefs and the creatures that live there. And in some tropical areas, the overfishing of reef fish threatens the vitality of the broader ecosystem. more
Tropical, reef-building corals are animals which build skeletons of calcium carbonate and have symbiotic algae that live inside them. Deep sea corals are animals as well, but they don’t have algae since there is no sunlight to take advantage of. Both types of coral create structures on the seafloor as these skeletons build up over time, forming vital ocean habitats for fish and other sea creatures. This process of reef formation is incredibly slow: once damaged, reefs can require decades or even millennia to fully recover.
The latest news about Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is not encouraging, and a slew of negative headlines tells the story: “Scientists despair at latest coral bleaching data,” says The Guardian; “Large Sections of Australia’s Great Reef Are Now Dead, Scientists Find” reports the New York Times. With news like this about the world’s most famous reef, it’s understandable for many people to conclude that saving coral reefs elsewhere is now impossible. Fortunately, this is not the case. We can still save corals. But to do so, we will need to take action and leverage an “all of the above” strategy of conservation that addresses both the local and global threats to their survival.
Oceana is working to protect habitats, including coral, and has been since our founding in 2001. With the support of funders including Arcadia Fund and Bloomberg Philanthropies, we have won more than 45 policy victories that protect corals, establish or expand Marine Protected Areas in key locations, end destructive bottom trawling and more. And as part of the broader environmental community’s efforts to address climate change, Oceana has successfully opposed offshore oil exploration and development. Preventing offshore oil drilling and exploration protects coral reefs from the associated risks of pollution while combating the fossil fuel industry. here
“Bright spots are characterized by strong sociocultural institutions such as customary taboos and marine tenure, high levels of local engagement in management, high dependence on marine resources, and beneficial environmental conditions such as deep-water refuge,” the report concludes.
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Last modified on Wed 25 Aug 2021 14.56 BST
But while Bruno & Valdivia frame their argument very carefully, it is possible that unscrupulous policy makers could seize upon their study to justify continued exploitation of marine resources, claiming that it makes no difference to the bigger picture. Professor Avigdor Abelson of Tel Aviv University who works on restoration ecology such as building artificial reefs fears it “may lead to undesirable consequences of accelerated coral reef degradation.”
“Coral reef degradation is not correlated with local human population density,” by Professor John Bruno and co-author Abel Valdivia of the University of North Carolina was published on 20 July. It suggests that contrary to prevailing scientific opinion, local pressures do not act synchronously with global stressors (most notably warming) and that their impact on reefs is negligible. According to Valdivia “Widespread arguments that coral reef degradation is mostly caused by local factors are unsupported. We found the problem is better explained by global impacts such as climate change.” more
Still, the question remains, is local management of the kind highlighted by Cinner et al having a real impact on the health of reef ecosystems? Says Bruno, “Although I doubt most coral bright spots are bright because of local management, I do agree that. we should throw all our conservation dollars at them to keep them that way as long as possible.”
Like Bruno & Valdivia, Cinner et al found that remote reefs did not necessarily fare better than those close to high population densities. What they did find though is that bright spots tend to be in locations where local communities have ancestral systems of reef tenure that protect fishing grounds from outsiders (such as West Papua in eastern Indonesia and some Pacific countries). The paper found that far from over-harvesting their reefs, these communities were acting as custodians.
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Founded by 11 nations, The Global Coral R&D Accelerator Platform will advance the next generation of science and technology needed to secure a future for coral reefs in the face of climate change and other pressures
The Platform appointed King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), as Platform Central Node (PCN), managing the program, in recognition of its track record on coral reef research, capacity for global research collaboration, management of proposals submitted from institutions throughout the world, state-of-the-art laboratories for coral reef research, and world class facilities for hosting international conferences and meetings. The University will support the PCN operations, at no cost to the G20, as an expression of its strong commitment to saving the world’s coral ecosystems.
Aware that the window of time to save coral reefs is narrow and rapidly closing and that no single nation has the capacity to reverse this trend, the G20 leaders announced the creation of the Global Coral R&D Accelerator Platform to improve coral conservation and restoration outcomes around the world with a suite of superior science and technology approaches.