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Introduction
Introduction
Coral reefs provide a variety of benefits to the environment and to humans alike. By protecting them, doing research, and helping them bounce back from coral bleaching and other terrible events, we can help protect coastlines, water quality, biodiversity, and even people's livelihoods.
This Page
This Page
On this page we list organizations by location. Some focus on conservation, breeding, science, or outreach.
Scroll down to see which organizations work in your area, and find out what you can do to support or join them!
Organizations
Organizations
International
International
Coral Reef Alliance "We work at local, regional, and global levels to keep coral reefs healthy, so they can adapt to climate change and survive for generations to come. As one of the largest global NGOs focused exclusively on protecting coral reefs, the Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL) has used cutting-edge science and community engagement for nearly 30 years to reduce direct threats to reefs and to promote scalable and effective solutions for their protection."
CoralWatch "integrates global coral health monitoring with education and public outreach creating reef awareness using simple and engaging tools. This provides people with accessible information about coral reefs and climate change, and hands-on experience collecting scientific data on coral bleaching using the Coral Health Chart. The chart is an easy-to-use tool to quantify changes in coral colour associated with coral bleaching on the reef. It is so simple, no prior training is needed and anyone can get involved. The chart is used in the field and classroom, is available in 12 languages and data on >230.000 corals from >1910 reefs in 79 countries is publicly accessible.
CoralWatch also provides regular workshops for communities, teachers and students, and has developed a range of high quality educational materials such as books, dvd, curriculum linked lesson plans. Many of these are freely available."Global Coral Reef Alliance (GCRA) "The GCRA is a small, non-profit organization dedicated to scientific research and sustainable management of coral reefs. Its membership is comprised of volunteer scientists, divers, environmentalists and other individuals and organizations, committed to coral reef preservation. As a leader in protecting coral reefs within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, it works with island nations in building, restoring, and maintaining coral reefs, nurseries, and marine sanctuaries."
The Green Fins "initiative aims to protect and conserve coral reefs through environmentally friendly guidelines that promote a sustainable diving and snorkeling industry. Green Fins is coordinated internationally by The Reef-World Foundation in partnership with the UN Environment. The Green Fins approach encompasses three main aspects:
Internationally recognized environmental standards for the diving and snorkeling industry, based on a 15-point code of conduct.
Supporting in the development or strengthening of relevant regulatory frameworks.
Strategic outreach to, and capacity building among, diving and snorkeling centers as well as governmental agencies."
International Coral Reef Society (ICRS) was founded in 1980 and is the principal association to which coral reef scientists, managers and enthusiasts from across the world belong. Our mission is to promote the acquisition and dissemination of scientific knowledge to secure coral reefs for future generations. Our vision is to be a leader in coral reef scientific discovery, to contribute to the education of future coral reef scientists, and to be a strong voice for science informing policies that protect coral reefs.
Project AWARE "began as a project by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI®) in the late 1980s. The organization connects the community of divers and others who are passionate about restoring the health of the oceans with sound conservation policy goals. Project AWARE's objectives are implemented through two campaigns: Clean Oceans (focused on reducing trash and pollution) and Healthy Oceans (reducing overfishing and protecting vulnerable species, particularly sharks and rays."
Reef Check "empowers people to save our reefs and oceans. Let’s work together to create a sustainable future through education, research, and conservation. Join us in our mission. We’re a team!"
Reef Resilience Network "Join our network of marine managers, practitioners, and experts connecting to share experiences, science, and strategies to improve the health of coral reefs around the world."
Reef Ball Foundation "is an international environmental NGO working to rehabilitate coral reefs. It pursues its mission of rehabilitating the world's reef ecosystems using modular, ball-shaped artificial reef substrates made of concrete, which it designs and manufactures. Reef Ball has placed over 1/2 million Reef Balls™ and conducted over 6,000 projects in over 62 countries. Their projects include artificial reefs, coral propagation and planting systems, estuary restoration, red mangrove plantings, oyster reef restoration, and erosion control."
Africa
Africa
Seychelles
Seychelles
Nature Seychelles "We use innovative approaches to conservation that bring benefits to nature and people. Our work is grounded in science, partnerships, and involving the community. We carry our programs in several key areas."
Asia
Asia
Indonesia
Indonesia
Bali
Nusa Penida Island
SeaTrees: Restoring Bali's Coral Reefs "This project restores the degraded coral reefs on Nusa Penida Island in Bali, Indonesia. SeaTrees project partner, Ocean Gardener, employs local Balinese fishermen to restore the reef and monitor the regeneration until it can survive on its own.
In 2021, 6,000 fragments of coral were planted and in May 2022 we expanded the project to a new restoration site in Crystal Bay and are planting another 6,000 coral fragments. We also began the process of scientific monitoring using 3D mapping technology with Scripps Institute of Oceanography."
Maldives
Maldives
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): Project REGENERATE is a coral restoration project in the Maldives, a low-lying atoll nation in the Indian Ocean, whose reefs are at a high risk from the impacts of climate change. The Maldives has already been impacted by mass coral bleaching in 1998, 2010, and 2016 that killed a majority of shallow corals. The project is sponsored by the IUCN and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project seeks to help local communities and government to measure and understand the impacts of climate change, and to develop management strategies that build resilience, mitigate impacts and promote adaptation. Read more."
Thailand
Thailand
Koh Tao Island
New Heaven Reef Conservation Program "At the New Heaven Reef Conservation Program, we have been working with artificial reefs for over a decade, and in this article, we are going to explore the history of artificial reefs, and then look at some of the methods we have found to be the most or least successful."
Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology Institute of Oceanography "Succesful rehabilitation and conservation of coral reefs in Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, Con Dao, Cu Lao Cham (Quang Nam), Ly Son (Quang Ngai) … help to conserve marine biodiversity and resources and so contributed significantly to the sustainable fisheries/tourism development. The rehabilitation technique has been transfered to related MPAs, local governments and enterprises for their own management and rehabilitation, under the assistance and supervision of IO’s scientists"
Sasa Marine Animal Rescue and Conservation in Da Nang city
Europe
Europe
The Green Fins "initiative aims to protect and conserve coral reefs through environmentally friendly guidelines that promote a sustainable diving and snorkeling industry. Green Fins is coordinated internationally by The Reef-World Foundation in partnership with the UN Environment. The Green Fins approach encompasses three main aspects:
Internationally recognized environmental standards for the diving and snorkeling industry, based on a 15-point code of conduct.
Supporting in the development or strengthening of relevant regulatory frameworks.
Strategic outreach to, and capacity building among, diving and snorkeling centers as well as governmental agencies."
OSPAR "is the mechanism by which 15 Governments & the EU cooperate to protect the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic.
OSPAR started in 1972 with the Oslo Convention against dumping and was broadened to cover land-based sources of marine pollution and the offshore industry by the Paris Convention of 1974. These two conventions were unified, up-dated and extended by the 1992 OSPAR Convention. The new annex on biodiversity and ecosystems was adopted in 1998 to cover non-polluting human activities that can adversely affect the sea.
The fifteen Governments are Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.
OSPAR is so named because of the original Oslo and Paris Conventions ("OS" for Oslo and "PAR" for Paris)."
Spain
Spain
Coral Soul "Asociación para la conservación marina y recuperación de los arrecifes de coral"
North America
North America
Bahamas
Bahamas
Coral Vita"creates technologically advanced coral farms for restoring reefs in a highly effective manner. Its scientific team has partnered with leading marine institutes, utilizing techniques to grow coral up to 50x faster while boosting their resiliency against the warming and acidifying oceans. After being cultivated to a target size, the farmed corals are transplanted back into degraded reefs. Coral Vita's farms also function as education centers for local communities as well as eco-tourism attractions."
San Salvador
Tabor Academy’s First Coral Reef Nursery blog talks about the new program and offers a video of students working on the problems facing coral reefs.
Caribbean
Caribbean
Caribbean Challenge Initiative (CCI) "This initiative (managed by the Nature Conservancy and its global partners) involves a collaboration between eleven countries and territories across the Caribbean region on an unprecedented scope. The Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) provides signatory countries with the long-term support needed to achieve their CCI commitments. CCI countries agree to:
Conserve at least 20% of their nearshore environments by 2020—effectively tripling marine protected area coverage in the region.
Ensure that conserved areas are effectively managed into the future through a reliable, long-term finance structure."
Tuckerman Reef "began as a resource on the crisis facing coral reefs worldwide as a result of climate change, pollution, and other anthropogenic causes, as well as cureent approaches for restoring and rehabilitating coral reefs. The site now aims to provide more expansive information that encompasses an overview of the laws, policies, and key government and nongovernment actors that play a role in protecting marine and terrestrial ecosystems, while helping to advance environmentally and socially sustainable national development goals.
Consulting services
Gunnar Baldwin, Jr. is a consultant with a practice in international environmental governance and sustainable development. His work focuses primarily on regulatory compliance and enforcement issues in connection with licenses and permits that arise from the environmental and social impact assessment (EsIA) process in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. The majority of his work has been performed on behalf of international organizations as a member of a consulting team. Gunnar is also a member of the bar in New York and the District of Colombia.
Regulation of coastal zone development in Latin America and the Caribbean
In many heavily populated coastal areas around the world, the concentration of high-impact, economically vital human activities in close proximity to fragile ecosystems poses significant governance challenges. These hotspots involve the convergence of a large variety of sectors and uses, stakeholders, government authorities, natural resources, impacts, and interrelationships within relatively small geographic areas.
Although planning and management disciplines such as Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) are being used in some parts of the world, the blueprints emerging from such tools are often imperfectly realized in practice. However, the combined impacts of climate change and a range of localized ecological stressors is increasingly providing the impetus for positive change."
Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Raising Coral Costa Rica "is a nonprofit group dedicated to the restoration of coral reefs along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The organization aims to restore coral reef ecosystems as well as the human connection with nature. Raising Coral Costa Rica grows corals in underwater nurseries and then outplants them on damaged coral reefs to help speed up their natural recovery, while working closely with local communities."
Volunteer Opportunities
Raising Coral Cost Rica: Volunteer "If you want to dive with us in Golfo Dulce... /Si le gustaría bucear con nosotros en el Golfo Dulce..."
USA
USA
NEMESIS "Welcome to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center's National Estuarine and Marine Exotic Species Information System (NEMESIS). Here you will find information on marine and estuarine invertebrates and algae introduced to the United States."
NOAA: Coral Reef Conservation Program "is a partnership between the NOAA Line Offices that work on coral reef issues. We bring together expertise from across NOAA for a multidisciplinary approach to understanding and conserving coral reef ecosystems."
Secore Internationa (SI) "is a nonprofit, tax–exempt US corporation dedicated to the large–scale restoration and protection of coral reefs through its Global Coral Restoration Project. It employs a multidisciplinary strategy that combines research, the development of novel tools, active reef restoration, education, and outreach for the conservation of coral reefs. SI has established a global network of scientists, public aquarium professionals, and local authorities, partners and stakeholders."
Florida
The Coral Reef Conservation Program "manages the northern section of the reef, from the St. Lucie Inlet to the northern border of Biscayne National Park known as the Kristin Jacobs Coral Reef Ecosystem Conservation Area. These reefs support a rich and diverse assemblage of stony corals, octocorals, macroalgae, sponges and fishes. The Coral Reef Conservation Program coordinates research and monitoring, develops management strategies and promotes partnerships to protect the coral reefs, hardbottom communities and associated reef resources along Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Martin counties."
Coral Restoration Foundation "We grow and outplant endangered species of coral to restore reef sites to a healthy state. Our innovative methods are cost-effective and scalable."
Florida's Coral Reef "With your help, we can rescue and restore Florida’s Coral Reef and share the wonders of our waters with generations to come."
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary "permitted researchers grow corals in underwater nurseries."
Islamorada Coral Nursery "Discover the cutting-edge coral reef science and restoration led by Mote Marine Laboratory scientists at our campuses throughout the Florida Keys. Learn more about public and private tours, interactive hands-on experiences, and group educational programs below."
Mote’s Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research & Restoration (IC2R3) "is 19,000 square feet of research, education, offices and dormitories, on almost an acre of Lower Florida Keys canal-side property. More than 300 feet of dock space and 120 feet of mangrove-fringed shoreline provide space for resident and visiting research support vessels. IC2R3 provides a base of operations for Mote's ongoing research and education programs in the Florida Keys, and it is also open to visiting collaborative marine research or collaborative marine education groups."
Plant a Million Corals Foundation "This non-profit organization is a spin-off resulting from Dr. David Vaughn's ground-breaking work when he was the Executive Director of the Mote Marine Laboratory in the Florida Keys. Now operating his own NGO, he is undertaking ambitious plans to leverage the micro-fragmentation process he pioneered to restore coral reefs around the globe."
Reef Cells "Traditional man-made habitat structure has been limited to sinking scuttled ships, obsolete equipment, and previously purposed concrete items; none of these artificial reefs look natural and many appear out of place in the marine environment. Many currently engineered artificial reef designs appear geometric, symmetrical and uniform; these shapes usually conform to the limitations of their fabrication method and usually emphasize ease of construction or deployment rather than compatibility with any natural aesthetic. Even reefs built from piled limestone boulders usually look like a pile of rocks and, given the mass of material used, these rock piles produce very few opportunities for habitat or colonization.
REEF CELLS maximize the productive capacity of the artificial reef by providing many interconnected cavities and internal surfaces exposed to sunlight and water current. The ratio of overall surface area and interconnected interior space to the amount of material used and the minimum sea floor area occupied is the highest of any artificial reef design. The size and spatial organization of the interior voids are designed to provide a specific habitat environment favored by a wide range of varied and diverse marine organisms."
#1000 Mermaids "is a monumental public EcoArt project in the form of an artificial reef installation that will also serve as an underwater eco-friendly destination for tourism & research. This project is one of Ocean Rescue Alliance’s eco-art initiatives. The 1000 mermaids mission is to enhance marine habitats and expand fish habitat while providing enhanced creative, economic and educational opportunities for the benefit, education and enjoyment of the public. Mermaids have long been a symbol of humans’ connection to the ocean, this artificial reef models real people in the form of mermaids creating them into artificial reefs. These ocean friendly and artistically crafted reef modules allow their likeness to live forever on the sea floor off of the coast of Florida."
Hawaii
Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources: Ānuenue Fisheries Research Center and Coral Restoration Nursery "collect corals from construction sites, shipwrecks, and other opportunistic situations for study and research. Corals are brought to the facility, where they are rapidly grown—using a series of newly-developed techniques to help quickly generate large coral modules, which can be out-planted back on the reef. University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant researchers are also conducting experiments at the Ānuenue facility to further understanding of the environmental conditions, like light and water movement, that are most useful for quickly growing corals for restoring our local reefs after bleaching and other catastrophic events."
Volunteer Opportunities
Restore with Resilience "We are restoring coral reefs in Hawaiʻi using selective propagation of local, thermally resistant stocks to enhance future reef resilience, leading to the protection of our coastlines and conservation of these dynamic ecosystems. We hope this strategy will buy corals some time while climate change is tackled at a broader scale."
Louisiana
Louisiana Wildlife & Fisheries: Artificial Reef Program "includes planning documents and reef locations"
Oceana
Oceana
Australia
Australia
Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) "is Australia's tropical marine research agency, playing a pivotal role in providing large-scale, long-term and world-class research on the management of Australia's marine resources. AIMS is studying the evolutionary potential and adaptive mechanisms of key coral reef organisms to develop tools and approaches for enhancing coral reef resilience on the Great Barrier Reef. This involves understanding if and how these organisms can become more tolerant to environmental stress, and the magnitude and rate of such adaptive responses in relation to the pace of environmental change."
Coral Ark "Your tank is the seedbank. Enlisting aquarists to help government and science conserve corals."
Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF) "The GBRF informs and educates people about what needs to be done to address the causes of coral reef degradation, including advising government and industry organizations. It takes practical action to fund work and innovative technologies from experts in Australia and beyond to protect the Great Barrier Reef. The GBRF is an independent NGO, with a Board comprised of representatives of Australian business, science, and philanthropy organizations."
Greening Australia: Reef Aid "To improve water quality on the Great Barrier Reef, we are working with landholders, communities and Traditional Owners to rebuild eroding gullies and restore vital coastal wetlands across the catchment."
South America
South America
Bonaire
Bonaire
Reef Renewal Foundation Bonaire "assists the recovery of deteriorated coral reef areas in Bonaire, using active coral restoration as a strategy to preserve and enhance the population of coral species. Its stated mission is to:
Develop new and innovative ways to restore reefs that are supported by research collaborations and shared worldwide.
Train, engage, and inspire the community locally and internationally through volunteering, educational events, and outreach.
Demonstrate that through community efforts there is still hope for coral reefs."
Volunteer Opportunities
Become a Coral Reef Volunteer "Reef Renewal volunteers help the organization with a myriad of tasks, including assisting Reef Renewal Foundation Bonaire staff in the coral nurseries, helping with maintenance activities, outplanting corals to restoration sites around Bonaire and Klein Bonaire, and more! Each week RRFB updates volunteers with scheduled RRFB-led dives and opportunities for skills updates. Volunteers are also welcome to perform maintenance activities at shore accessible sites during their free time. Our flexible volunteering options make it easy to jump in at your convenience!"
Colombia
Colombia
Corales de Paz (Corals for Peace) "is a Colombia-based organization that encourages members of the recreational diving community to become participants in the monitoring, protection, and recovery of coral reefs. Its work is focused in four key areas: participatory reef monitoring, scaling-up coral reef restoration, reef science, and the responsible use of coral reefs."
Related Topics
Related Topics
Other Organization Types
Other Organization Types
While the following don't help coral directly, they do work on issues that can help improve the enviroment in ways that would benefit coral as well as many other species.
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