Saving the World's Coral Reefs

If you walk along a certain dirt road in the Wahikuli watershed in West Maui, you will see a large sign made by the Coral Reef Alliance asking motorcyclists for their kokua (help) in avoiding this road and taking an alternative road nearby instead.

What does this road a mile from the shoreline have to do with coral reefs? And how can bikers help?

In West Maui, water pollution from old dirt roads has led to a decline of coral cover from 30 to just 10 percent in the last fifteen years. Stormwater runoff also regularly causes the Hawaii Department of Health to issue “Brown Water Advisories”, which are warnings to the public to avoid swimming or fishing because of risks to human health. Beach closures negatively impact Hawaii’s natural and cultural heritage, as well as the tourism industry.

When it rains, sediment washes down dirt roads into streams and get dumped on coral reefs.

CORAL, our partners, and volunteers from the community are working to address this threat by planting native plants and deep-rooted grasses along dirt roads that run adjacent to streams. Bringing back native vegetation helps trap sediments and stabilize the soil, while also improving habitat for native plants and animals and creating opportunities for local communities to reconnect with the land.

Every month CORAL hosts a Watershed Restoration Day, where a team of volunteers plants native seedlings across abandoned dirt roads. So far, over 200 volunteers have planted approximately 8,000 plants, which are effectively reducing sediment pollution across West Maui.

CORAL staff and volunteers plant rows of native vegetation on old dirt roads

Motorcyclists recreationally traveling along these roads were unknowingly running over our seedlings and sediment traps, rendering them ineffective. When CORAL staff realized this, we decided to create an educational poster asking bikers for their collaboration.

The signs explain the connection between these plants and coral reefs and respectfully asks bikers to take an alternative road. The bikers are listening. Since the signs were installed, we no longer find our plants being damaged by biker wheels. We can all do our small part to help, and CORAL is excited to engage this new and unexpected ally in protecting Maui’s coral reefs!

CORAL’s dedicated volunteers install signs asking motorcyclists for their help.

Coral reefs provide an important source of food and income for coastal and island communities around the world. But more than 55 percent of reefs are threatened by overfishing globally.

Overfishing not only disrupts the delicate ecology of coral reefs, it also negatively impacts the local communities that depend on them. If fishers are unable to catch enough fish, they may struggle to make a living or feed their families.

Small-scale fisher in Micos Lagoon, Honduras.

That’s where bees and chickens come in.

Entrepreneurial “income diversification” projects, like raising egg-laying chickens or keeping honeybees, offer new ways for fishers and their families to earn money. When communities have the skills and resources to generate income in new ways, they don’t need to overfish. The result is a win-win solution, in which people are no longer over-reliant on a single resource, while depleted fish stocks and coral reef ecosystems get the chance to recover and thrive.

As part of our Healthy Fisheries for Reefs initiative, CORAL collaborates with local communities to develop tailored, locally appropriate income diversification projects. Some such examples include our egg-laying chicken project in coastal Honduras and our beekeeping project in Waivunia, Fiji. We help build the capacity of local people to learn skills like how to run an artisan shop or become a tour guide operator — always taking into consideration communities’ preferences and interests and the availability of materials for start-up and maintenance.

Newly-trained beekeepers suit up in Waivunia, Fiji.

One of our greatest success stories comes from the Micos Lagoon on the north coast of Honduras. With its natural beauty and high biodiversity, the lagoon is the ecological, social, and economic heart of Blanca Jeannette Kawas National Park. It serves as a nursery habitat where juvenile reef fish spend their lives before populating Tela Bay’s coral reefs. Unfortunately, water pollution, overfishing, and unsustainable fishing practices (like using fishing nets with illegal mesh sizes) have caused overexploitation of the lagoon. In July 2017, Micos lagoon experienced a number of hypoxic events that devastated the food chain, leaving more than 500 fishers and their families without their usual income.

Shortly thereafter, CORAL began work with the fishing community of Los Cerritos to create an egg-laying hen project. We partnered with a cooperative of 12 women who are either fishers themselves or married to fishers, and gave them a microgrant for the purchase of 120 egg-laying hens. After a year of construction, learning, and trial and error, the hens are now providing an alternative source of protein for the community and helping them adapt to new fishing regulations and changing environmental conditions (e.g. hypoxic events) in the lagoon.

Women from the Los Cerritos women’s co-op proudly handle their new hens.

Income diversification activities like this one not only reduce fishing pressure but also engender goodwill and increase compliance with local fishing regulations. Together with scientific monitoring, enforcement patrols, sustainable policies, and education, they are a highly valuable conservation strategy for people and reefs.