Coral Restoration Consortium
** The CRC has a NEW website! Visit us at crc.world **
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. Check out this CRC quick look for more information!
Become a member of the CRC and join the mailing list for the latest updates on guides, publications, webinars, and more! Click HERE to join.
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!
The Coral Reef Restoration Monitoring Guide
The CRC is excited to announce the release of the Monitoring Working Group’s latest product- the CRC Coral Restoration Monitoring Guide Sep. 2020.
The 150 page guide provides a scalable scientific approach to evaluate progress towards restoration success and to provide guidance for monitoring coral reef restoration to measure restoration success. Check out this two-page summary of the Guide.
CRC Calendar of Events
- December 14 & 16, 2021– Reef Futures 2021 Virtual. Register HERE.
- September 26-30, 2022 – Reef Futures 2022 in-person! Visit reeffutures.com to learn more.
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
Ian McLeod, TropWATER, James Cook University
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
- Click here to receive e-mail updates on the CRC’s development, newsletters with scholarly information on restoration, and quarterly webinar announcements.
- Join a Working Group.
- Coral Restoration Photo Website is now public- Visit the site to see photos of coral restoration around the world!
- Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube!
- Watch restoration webinars.
CRC Governance Document
CRC 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).