Location: Indonesia

Collaborators: Amelia Moore, Carlos Garcia-Quijano (URI); Muhammed Kurnia, Buchari Mengge, Suparman Abdullah (Hasanuddin University)

Lab Personnel: Nicky Roberts, Lauren Josephs

Goal: Determine the impact of a large-scale coral reef restoration project on fisheries catch, the fish value chain, social dynamics, and food security using a mixed-methods social-ecological approach.

Significance: Research outputs from this work will contribute to the growing interest in the feasibility of coral reef restoration for improving livelihoods and wellbeing in small remote island communities. 

Background: Destructive fishing practices and climate change have severely damaged coral reef systems throughout the world. Not only do these stressors kill fish and other organisms, but they also destroy coral skeletons and prevent new coral recruits from building a reef. The consequences for coral reef fisheries are potentially dramatic, leading to changes in relationships within communities that are dependent on reefs for food security and livelihood. Coral restoration may provide one way to “buy us time” for curbing carbon emissions and rehabilitate the reef ecosystem at a local level. However, there is extreme doubt in the social and ecological scalability of such restoration approaches. Using a mixed-methods interdisciplinary approach, we will critically examine the social-ecological response of small-island communities undergoing coral restoration as a way to understand interlinked ecosystem processes.

Funding: Private donors