Coral Restoration Consortium

The Coral Restoration Consortium (CRC) is a community of practice comprised of scientists, managers, coral restoration practitioners, and educators dedicated to enabling coral reef ecosystems to survive the 21st century and beyond. The CRC’s mission is to foster collaboration and technology transfer among participants, and to facilitate scientific and practical ingenuity to demonstrate that restoration can achieve meaningful results at scales relevant to reefs in their roles of protecting coastlines, supporting fisheries, and serving as economic engines for coastal communities.

 

 

New CRC Priorities

 

During the CRC in-person Leadership Team in March 2020, the CRC priorities were reviewed and updated. For each priority, a dedicated Working Group is developing solution-oriented action plans and establishing best management practices to help increase the scale and efficiency of coral restoration. The top CRC priorities for the next two to five years are:

  • Develop and promote the use of standardized terms and metrics for coral reef restoration.
  • Increase restoration efficiency, focusing on scale and cost-effectiveness of deployment.
  • Scale-up larval propagation for its effective integration in coral restoration efforts, with an emphasis on recruit health, growth and survival.
  • Develop guidance that promotes a holistic approach to coral reef ecosystem restoration.
  • Develop guidance to ensure restoration of threatened coral species takes place within a comprehensive population genetics management context.
  • Develop new, and synthesize existing, resources to guide and support coral reef restoration practitioners working in diverse geographic locations.

In addition to Working Groups, the CRC also has several Regional Groups and Ad-hoc groups. Regional Groups form to share information across smaller regions, smaller time zones, and/or a shared language. Ad-hoc groups are informal groups that form to tackle sub-topics as needed. Join a Regional Group or and Ad-hoc Group HERE!

 

Introducing the CRC Restoration Database

 

The CRC Restoration Database is a geospatial database, created by the Monitoring Working Group, is designed to track coral restoration efforts throughout the world. Data collected includes who is doing what coral restoration and where. There are three products associated with this tracking effort:

  1. A Microsoft Access database that records information about coral nurseries and restoration sites
  2. Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for practitioners to record their coral nursery and restoration data to add to the database.
  3. An online map to display coral nursery and restoration data.

Please contribute to this effort, by adding your coral nursery or coral restoration data to the database! To contribute, please download the Excel files CRC Nursery Input and CRC Outplant Input, fill out the information in the spreadsheets, and return to alison.moulding@noaa.gov. Instructions for filling out the spreadsheets are under the first tab of each file. The database will be updated as new info

 

 

 

CRC Calendar of Events

  • Reef Futures 2021 will be held in Key Largo, FL from May 17 to 21, 2021.

 

 

 

Leadership Team, 2019 – 2023

Steering Committee

Executive Team
Scott Winters (Co-Chair), Coral Restoration Foundation
Tom Moore (Co-Chair), NOAA Restoration Center
Petra MacGowan, Reef Resilience Network
Petra Lundgren, Great Barrier Reef Foundation
Tali Vardi (Executive Coordinator), ECS for NOAA Fisheries Office of Science and Technology

Members at Large
David Gulko, Hawaii Department of Aquatic Resources
Ilsa Kuffner, U.S. Geological Survey
Les Kauffman, Boston University
Phanor Montoya Maya, Corales de Paz
Joe Pollock, The Nature Conservancy
Sandrine Pivard, UN Environment – Caribbean Environment Programme
Buki Rinkevich, National Institute of Oceanology
Anastazia Banaszak, The National Autonomous University of Mexico

Working Group Chairs

Iliana Baums (Restoration Genetics), Penn State University
Valerie Chamberland (Larval Propagation), SECORE International 
David Suggett (Field-based Propagation), University of Technology-Sydney
Liz Shaver (Management), Reef Resilience Network
Shay Viehman (Restoration Monitoring), NOAA NCCOS
Chelsea Wolke (Land-based Propagation), Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources

Regional Group Chairs

Nathan Cook (Australia), Reef Ecologic
Samuel Suleiman (Latin America), Sociedad Ambiente Marina
Tatiana Villalobos (Eastern Tropical Pacific), Raising Coral Costa Rica

 

Get Involved with the CRC

 

CRC Governance Document

​In response to rapidly deteriorating climate, land, and ocean conditions and the concomitant expansion of active coral restoration, the Coral Restoration Consortium has been created as a coordinating body that seeks to disseminate best practices, foster technological innovation, and identify and help to address key research gaps. All actions are intended to improve the efficiency with which coral reefs are restored such that reef ecosystems can protect coastlines, foster fisheries, serve as the basis for many economies, and be enjoyed for their diversity by future generations. This governance document was created to develop an internal structure for the Coral Restoration Consortium. Click here to read our official Governance Document.

 

CRC Code of Ethics

The Coral Restoration Consortium is driven by action and results. We believe that through innovation, open access to data and education, and a collaborative, coordinated approach, we can provide goal setting and supporting resources to restore coral reefs in an ecologically meaningful manner to help ensure their sustainability for future generations. We act with honesty, respect, and integrity at all times, promoting inclusion and diverse opinions, while focused exclusively on achieving the Consortium’s mission above personal agendas. Our decisions are fact-based, and we work to promote a positive, collaborative environment that fosters teamwork and information sharing. Click here to read our Code of Ethics.

 

For general inquiries on the CRC, please email Coral.Restoration@noaa.gov.

 

 

The Coral Restoration Consortium (CRC) is a Chapter of the International Coral Reef Society (ICRS).