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A Manager's Guide to Coral Reef Restoration Planning and Design

A Manager's Guide to Coral Reef Restoration Planning and Design The six steps of the Coral Reef Restoration Planning and Design Cycle include: 1. Set goal and geographic focus. 2. Identify, prioritize, and select sites. 3. Identify, design, and select interventions. 4. Develop Restoration Action Plan. 5. Implement restoration. 6. Monitor and evaluate progress.Six-step planning cycle presented in the Guide. Each step is described within a section of the Guide. The planning cycle is iterative, hence the circular nature of the process and double-sided arrows between the steps. The cycle includes multiple entry points that can be used depending on where Guide users are in the planning process in their area.

Resource managers are exploring how to use active restoration interventions to mitigate reef degradation and promote recovery and resilience.

The urgent motivation to sustain coral reefs has fueled a building momentum to restore and rebuild reefs, with increasing numbers of projects, research studies, and investments. However, coral reef restoration as a field is still in its infancy, with many projects and techniques remaining small-scale and experimental. As managers seek to invest in restoration activities, careful planning is required to improve the chances that restoration will be successful. The needed planning includes working with local experts, stakeholders, and decision-makers to determine how, when, and where restoration will be conducted, and how it can complement - rather than take away from - existing coral reef conservation and management strategies.

A Manager's Guide to Coral Reef Restoration Planning and Design supports the needs of reef managers seeking to begin restoration or assess their current restoration program. The Guide is aimed at reef resource managers and conservationists, along with everyone who plans, implements, and monitors restoration activities.

Through a six-step, adaptive management planning process, the Guide helps managers gather relevant data, ask critical questions, and have important conversations about restoration in their location. The process set out in the Guide leads to the creation of a Restoration Action Plan. Hallmarks of the process include the iterative nature of the planning cycle and ways to consider climate change, such that we learn and improve restoration efforts that can also meet long-term goals in a warming world. The first four steps of the Guide's planning cycle focus on goal-based planning and design of restoration interventions. The final two steps discuss considerations for full-scale implementation and long-term monitoring.

Resources:

The Guide includes two Appendices and other tools and materials that can be used assist readers in developing a Restoration Action Plan, including:

Acknowledgements:

Development of this Guide was made possible through financial support from the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coral Reef Conservation Program and NOAA Restoration Center, the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development, and The Nature Conservancy's Reef Resilience Network.

Citation:

Shaver E C, Courtney C A, West J M, Maynard J, Hein M, Wagner C, Philibotte J, MacGowan P, McLeod I, Boström-Einarsson L, Bucchianeri K, Johnston L, Koss J. 2020. A Manager's Guide to Coral Reef Restoration Planning and Design. NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program. NOAA Technical Memorandum CRCP 36, 120 pp. https://doi.org/10.25923/vht9-tv39

A Manager's Guide to Coral Reef Restoration Planning and Design (full report, PDF)

Supplemental Materials:
For more information contact:

Reef Resilience Network at The Nature Conservancy at resilience@tnc.org