Abstract Summary
The north of Mozambique is famous for the biodiversity of coral, specially Acropora genera. Despite climate change the region recovered well for the el Ninõ 1998 and after that was not hit. Meanwhile the 3th biggest reserves of gas where discover in deep sea, and a big LNG plant is going to be built in the mainland. The only way to bring the pipeline of gas from the ocean to mainland is across the coral barrier. This means to cut an area of coral barrier of 80m by 500-1000m to lay the pipe and cover with suitable material for the re-growing of the coral. The Lurio University was award a grant to pilot a project to grow coral for the restoration of coral reefs on top of the pipeline impact zones. The project will be run in an island (Vamizi) near the LNG plant and the research station of the university, and a village with whom the University is been working. The project consists of two phases: one, testing several culture systems with the community; the other, scaling up the culture for high production to the restoration project. We hope a third phase of restructuring the cultivation systems for aquarium business could be possible, so communities can continue to have income from the activity. All project will be accompanied by capacity building of Mozambican students in diving, coral reef studies and community working.
