The Sandals Foundation launched its coral restoration project in Saint Lucia in 2017, and established coral nurseries in the Soufriere Marine Management Area (SMMA). The project’s aim is to create a restoration programme that creates livelihood opportunities, and increases the resilience of inshore coral reefs around the island.
This week, the “Coral Nursery Dive” was launched at the Sandals Dive Center, Auberge Seraphine, in collaboration with Clear Caribbean, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), the Department of Fisheries and the German International Development Agency (GIZ). Bianca Young, environmental officer of the Sandals Foundation, says the project is about building and creating a healthy reef that fish can thrive in, which in the end would support not just the tourism industry, but the fisheries industry as well.
“So the project started in 2017 which involved primarily the creation of a coral nursery, and that coral nursery has up to 2,000 fragments that are ready to be out-planted,” said Young. “This dive is the second phase to get it out-planted, but it also involves a rigorous training programme for community members to be able to become diving certified, as well as to become coral gardeners.”
Head of the environmental health and sustainable department of CARPHA, Lyndon Robertson, said that the organisation has partnered with GIZ to sponsor the project. He said that as a regional intergovernmental agency, they are tasked by member states to provide support with regards to environmental management. He said the project is in keeping with their initiatives in climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, disaster-risk management, and building sustainable livelihoods. “The critical aspect of this project is that the public-private partnership would secure and allow for sustainability beyond the funding tenure of the project,” said Robertson. “In our Caribbean region we do suffer from what is called a breakdown after the funding cycle of projects has stopped. So we have decided that the best way to invest, is to have a sustainability element built into the project.”
