Restoring corals, restoring communities

How a community in Kenya is working together to protect their local reef through ecosystem restoration.

Article by: Tania Roa

Artwork by: Lorna Dolby-Stevens

Ecosystem restoration involves the revival of degraded landscapes and natural cycles, enhancing biodiversity, improving resilience, and increasing the amount and quality of natural resources.

One of the most profound climate solutions, ecosystem restoration benefits both human and planet health. When we care for the Earth, it returns the favour. 

The nurturing of coral reefs off the coast of Kenya is one illustrative example of ecosystem restoration. In Kwale, Kenya, fisherfolk rely on marine ecosystems for food sources and livelihoods. Fishing was once a reliable source of income, until fish started to disappear as a result of reef degradation. 

As oceans warm, corals under extreme stress expel the algae living inside their branches, turning the corals white. This phenomenon is known as coral bleaching, as the algae are what give the corals their bright, diverse colours. 

Algae is also the foundation of the marine food web. Numerous fish species, such as parrotfish, eat algae, and those fish are preyed upon by larger fish, including sharks. Other creatures, including crabs, shrimp, snails and worms, rely on the bacteria living on the coral. 

When you lose the foundation of the food web, the threads begin to unravel, and ecosystems break down. Once the algae abandon their coral host, every scaly and slimy individual in the bustling reef town is negatively affected. 

Fish that relied on the algae for food are forced out into the open ocean, where they are more vulnerable to predation. This means that predators on the reef also lose their source of food, and the reef metropolis becomes a haunted, skeleton city. 

Coral reefs house a quarter of marine species worldwide, so coral bleaching poses a major threat to global biodiversity and food security.

Thankfully, coral bleaching doesn’t have to mean the end of coral reefs. Divers, community members, and fisherfolk in Kwale demonstrate the profound impact of community-led action, through ecosystem restoration. 

Divers in Kwale monitor and transplant corals raised in nurseries to repopulate the reefs. Community members educate one another on the importance of coral reefs and why they matter to the longevity of the people. Fisherfolk are implementing more sustainable fishing practices to prevent overfishing. 

By avoiding practices such as bottom trawling, gillnetting, and purse seining, which consist of giant nets that capture everything in their path, people can fish without destroying the entire reef. 

In contrast to damaging fishing practices, selective fishing methods reduce bycatch, ensuring that only the targeted species and sizes of fish are caught. Selective fishing gives fish a chance to reach sexual maturity, allowing endangered species to breed and increase populations.

Using different levels of protections, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) preserve the reef and coastline, guaranteeing that there is always a minimum number of fish species and individuals. Fish don’t know where a protected area starts or begins, so naturally they will swim out of the protected area, and that’s when the surrounding ocean and local fisherfolk benefit. 

This rebound effect leads to overflow benefits from the MPA and as a result, coastal communities witness an increase in food availability and higher earnings for their daily catch. Meanwhile, the planet celebrates the return of biodiversity.

Ecosystem restoration can signify prosperity for everyone, including generations to come. But to fully restore ecosystems, you need a long-term, intergenerational commitment. 

The people living in Kwale have more of an incentive to protect the coastlines and marine ecosystems they rely on compared to outsiders, because of these overflow benefits. For optimal benefits, eco-restoration projects should be led by local community members. 

When everyone works together, everyone experiences the rewards. 

Although other species, from plants to microorganisms to animals, also benefit from ecosystem restoration, the urgency of reviving natural processes is largely for our own sake. Increasing food security, maintaining the productivity of water sources, and preventing the worsening impacts of the climate crisis all depend on us changing our practices, and restoring natural ecosystem functions. 

Equally, rising global temperatures and consequent warming oceans will continue to bleach coral reefs unless transformative climate action is taken. 

The climate crisis endangers marine species that are essential for the health of our blue planet - species on which we depend for our livelihoods. To protect reefs worldwide, initiatives like those happening in Kwale can’t happen in isolation. Alongside consistent climate action, there must be a global shift toward sustainable economies focused on environmental restoration rather than degradation. 

Restoring one coral at a time, one community at a time, we can bring back abundance for years to come.