Abstract Summary
Coral reefs are under serious threat from coastal development, pollution and overfishing, in addition to increasing pressure from the impacts of climate change. As a consequence of climate change-related warming there has been global mass bleaching of coral reefs, and more than 60% of coral reefs worldwide are threatened. “Blue Restoration” (i.e. the restoration of coastal marine environments) is necessary to ensure the provision of benefits from coral reef habitats, via ecosystem services. In order to make efficient decisions on how and where to spend the limited funds allocated to coral reef restoration, managers need accurate estimates of the benefits and costs of restoration interventions. The value of the benefits provided by coral reefs have been measured, but reporting on costs is inconsistent or omitted entirely from published restoration literature. For costs that have been reported, there is a large variation within and between intervention type, location, and study species. This leads to large uncertainty when planning new coral reef restoration projects, which discourages risk-averse investors. If coral reef restoration is to be deployed at the scale necessary to halt deterioration, restoration finance needs to quantify the uncertainty surrounding cost estimates. To this end, we have designed a survey for coral reef restoration practitioners, to investigate accuracy and bias within restoration costs reported in published literature. We sent surveys to 66 coral reef restoration practitioners, researchers, and managers, who had previously indicated a willingness to provide cost data. Here, we present initial results of this survey, and encourage participation in financing of coral reef restoration.
