By Austin Bowden-Kerby | Reefs of Hope Coral Reef Program Scientist
In November a working group of 14 volunteers descended on the Malolo site in Fiji to learn and to serve, carrying out major maintenance work on the coral nurseries and reef sites, with Plantation Island Resort providing free accommodation and boats for the ten days. We succeeded in carrying out major reinforcements and repairs to Bula Nursery and two other nurseries, cleaned the four giant clam cages, removed several hundred COTS predators from the reef, created a new nursery, and put in our first coral reef regeneration patch using second generation corals. The full workshop, with photos of activities is attached to this report.
More good news is that we have two new resort partners coming on board to assist with the work and agreeing to hire those who we have trained as staff to carry out Reefs of Hope work in their areas of operation: Tropical Island Resort in Malolo District and Crusoe's Retreat in Serua Province on the Coral Coast. This is in addition to the Outrigger Resort in Sigatoka, and our long-term partner, Plantation Island Resort in the Mamanutha Islands, Malolo.
Another major advancement is that we have secured a CORDAP grant, which includes the purchase of a 14-seater van to serve our needs for workshops, which will greatly enhance the community aspects of the program supported by GlobalGiving. The Naidiri site can now become a model training site for communities all along the Coral Coast, fulfilling the vision brought forward by the Naidiri youth themselves. With the new grant we are able to increase our staff by three field officers and a communications officer, plus there is some funding for our Samoa and Vanuatu partners as well! However, GlobalGiving remains vital to our operations, as the CORDAP grant falls short on community work and there is no funding at all for Tuvalu or Kiribati.
In September C4C's Program Scientist Dr Austin published a new Reefs of Hope paper, translating the actions into a national adaptation plan for Fiji. The new paper and the new Reefs of Hope paradigm to save coral species from extinction has been endorsed by the International Coral Reef Initiative as the way forward for coral reefs globally!
In December our Program Scientist travelled to Tuvalu for three weeks to seek out surviving corals among the devasted reefs due to the 2024 marine heat wave and mass coral bleaching. Surviving corals were found in six limited spots, and so a coral gene bank nursery was established in partnership with the NGO Fuligafou. A short film was produced of those efforts, which has gone viral with 31,000 views. Watch the clip -link provided below, to find out why!
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
