Creating a National Coral-Focused Climate Change Adaptation Plan for Fiji to Prevent Coral Species Extinction in the Face of Rapid Climate Change: Applying the “Reefs of Hope” UNESCO-Endorsed Ocean Decade Action
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In the face of recent setbacks to coral reefs and coral reef restoration due to intensifying marine heat waves, climate smart strategies have been developed to accelerate natural processes of coral reef adaptation and recovery. In 2024 "Reefs of Hope" became the first coral-focused restoration and adaptation program to be endorsed by UNESCO as an Ocean Decade action. https://oceandecade.org/actions/reefs-of-hope/ This paper shares progress made, methods used, and translates the new paradigm into a national coral-focused adaptation plan for Fiji. The primary goal of a national coral-focused adaptation plan is to keep coral species alive despite increasingly lethal temperatures due to ocean warming, and in doing so to retain as much genetic diversity as possible within secure gene bank nurseries located in ideal reef locations, with a focus on heat-adapted bleaching resistant corals which are vital to adaptation. Secondary goals are to restore sexual reproduction to declining and rare coral species, and to support natural larval-based recovery and adaptation processes via creation of “regeneration patches” which enhance and restore natural recovery processes while facilitating the spread of heat adapted genetic diversity of both host and symbionts.