It might sound counterintuitive if you want to restore coral reefs, focus on land first and work with communities before shifting your efforts to the underwater world. But a new study published in the journalBiological Conservation确认这种新颖的珊瑚恢复方法。
Ultimately restoring coral reefs is done to benefit people, to benefit the economy, and improve ecosystem services provided by corals, so it makes sense to focus effort with communities first. This is to not only identify benefits and positive outcomes but also understand which factors on land are contributing to coral reef decline in the first place.
Global climate change and rising ocean temperatures are only one side of the story when it comes to coral reef decline. Environmental degradation due to destructive fishing, sedimentation caused by coastal development, declining water quality due to anthropogenic pollution, and environmental stressors such as disease or predators like the crown of thorn starfish have a compounding effect leading to the decline and loss of coral reef.
“The human dimension is particularly relevant to coral restoration since people are involved in all stages of the restoration process, from design to execution and monitoring. Involvement of volunteers and citizen scientists in restoration efforts has the potential to improve local and global stewardship of reef resources.”
在这项研究中，采访了四个公认的珊瑚修复项目，以分析珊瑚恢复的益处和局限性。
Benefits
“在为珊瑚恢复的利益而确定的五个主体主题中，主题'社会文化利益'和'生态福利'比其他主题更频繁地提到。”
参与社区是确保恢复项目长期成功的强大工具。珊瑚修复可以成为保护教育的强大工具。
Limitation
“Among the six themes identified for the limitations of coral restoration, the themes ‘technical limitations’ and ‘management limitations’ were significantly more frequently mentioned than the other themes.”
So while it is important to remember the goal of restoration is to restore a coral reef habitat, it is the people who the reef support who are the ultimate recipient of the aid, and by supporting the community, addressing underlying issues causing degradation and involving them at every step of the process, coral restoration projects are far more likely to succeed and persist in the future.
As for the limitations?
正在发生范式转变，越来越多的有关潜水商店，海洋公园，非政府组织和沿海社区正在参与环境修复。我们对珊瑚恢复的了解正在成倍增长，我们很快将弥合目前存在的技术知识差距。
