Resilient reefs

How protecting UNESCO World Heritage coral reefs became a model for conservation

The Resilient Reefs initiative was set up by the not-for-profit Great Barrier Reef Foundation to help five UNESCO World Heritage-listed coral reefs in Australia, New Caledonia, Palau, and Belize combat the effects of climate change and other challenges. As the strategy delivery partner, we are working with the local communities, reef managers and resilience experts to develop a roadmap to reef resilience.

Globally, an estimated 75 percent of coral reefs are under threat from a combination of global climate change and local stresses such as tourism, shipping, agriculture, and fishing. These critically important and biodiverse ecosystems support 25 percent of all marine life in the ocean.

Building resilience into reef management

As delivery partner, we developed guidance to support each of the five sites to develop and implement resilience strategies, combining proven resilience-building models with site specific coral reef expertise to institutionalize resilience-based management for coral reefs and the communities they support. We are supporting sites to implement and fund a targeted suite of priority actions that will demonstrate the value of local actions to build resilience and inspire and influence the wider global coral reef community.

Delivering strategy, funding, and implementation

Our work will deliver the first fully integrated and transferable model for building the resilience of both coral reefs and the communities that depend on them, from planning through to implementation.