Overview
The Ocean Trust aim to rebuild coral reefs in the Western Indian Ocean, starting with the Lamu archipelago, Kenya where their current project is based. Using a simple but effective method, the reefs are being rebuilt by local people, who also benefit economically from the alternative livelihoods, employment and education opportunities created.
Over the past three decades, 50% of coral reefs worldwide have been lost due to human activity and the rapidly accelerating impacts of climate change. Scientists predict by 2043 coral will be practically extinct without intervention.
The effects of this loss are already being felt in the Lamu archipelago, Kenya, with catches of fish steadily declining. If this trend persists, it will not only result in the loss of a vital and extraordinary ecosystem on the reef, but it will also cause communities to spiral into poverty and famine.
The Ocean Trust are working and engaging with local communities in Kenya to provide education on the ocean and how it can be restored. As well as empowering the local community to revive the ocean, they are also creating alternative livelihoods, employment and education opportunities.
Using a scientifically proven and well-established method called the MARRS approach, The Ocean Trust method of coral restoration is not only simple and low-cost, but it is also scalable. They utilise locally sourced materials to construct specialised hexagonal structures known as ‘reef stars.’ These structures are coated in sand before fragmented corals are attached. They are then deployed across vast areas of dead coral rubble. The reef stars provide a robust and stable platform that enable corals to grow and marine life to repopulate the degraded area.
The results have been impressive, and the team are witnessing new coral sites grow and thrive, with marine life flourishing around them.
The goal of the organisation is to build coral restoration capacity in the Western Indian Ocean, working to rebuild and restore lost and dying reefs on a large enough scale to have a meaningful ecological, environmental, and economic impact. The £2,500 grant from the John Good Group will help The Ocean Trust to scale their work.
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