Researchers are calling for a transformational shift in the funding of coral reef restoration efforts across the southeast Asia region.
Coral reef restoration, the active process of aiding the recovery and rehabilitation of damaged or degraded reefs, has emerged as a strategy to help these critical ecosystems in the face of climate change pressures.
A study tour in Australia earlier this year involving policymakers, research funders, practitioners and scientists from Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, as well Australia, led to a research paper that reveals there’s huge potential for coral restoration in those nations but how it’s funded needs to evolve.
JCU graduate and deputy director at UNSW’s Centre for Marine Science and Innovation, and lead author of the paper, Dr Chris Cvitanovic, said the paper’s intent was to capture the collective knowledge and expertise of participants in the study tour, and outline a roadmap for how to improve coral reef restoration practices in the countries where Australia funds research through its aid budget.
“The discussions, as captured in the paper, pointed to the fact that funding in this space needs to evolve. The delegates from our partner countries in South-East Asia concluded that we can’t just fund ‘more of the same research’,” he said.
“We really need to focus more on the human dimensions of reef restoration, things like how we govern restoration projects for success and how we empower local communities to have ownership over them and sustain them for the long-term.
“This can only be achieved via the meaningful inclusion of the social sciences at the fore of restoration investments, alongside natural research, not as an afterthought.”
The study tour, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), included workshops and presentations held at JCU in Townsville and Cairns as well as visits to Great Barrier Reef sites.
Head of JCU’s Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture Associate Professor Amy Diedrich was a co-author on the paper and she said bringing together the Australian and Southeast Asian perspectives is very useful.
“It highlights the importance of understanding socio-economic, cultural, and governance considerations in Southeast Asia compared to Australia,” she said.
“What we do in Australian reef restoration practices might be very similar from a technical perspective, but there’s other contextual considerations in Southeast Asia.
“One of the big things is community participation and engagement, because obviously the context there is very different. You’ve got people who are very much reliant on fisheries for survival, not necessarily just at a commercial level, but at a subsistence level as well.
“There are also livelihood opportunities that may emerge from restoration efforts, such as tourism.
“So, the implications of managing marine areas for coral reef restoration is very different to what it would be say, in Australia, for people’s livelihoods.”
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