Earlier this month, our partners at the Coral Research & Development Accelerator Platform (CORDAP) hosted a four-day workshop in Mombasa, Kenya, to identify challenges surrounding coral reef conservation and restoration in the Global South. The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation was invited to participate in this workshop to advise on actionable strategies to address the importance of co-design and capacity building for coral conservation programming. The workshop brought together representatives from academia, conservation philanthropies, the private sector, restoration, and government from 19 Global South countries. The Global South is home to many of the world’s reefs, but often fall in the low to mid-level income nations. This leads to discrepancies in conservation infrastructure, funding opportunities, and access to historical research data.
The main hurdles to the advancement of coral restoration and conservation in the Global South were identified by six umbrella categories:
- Collaborations
- Project Management
- Capacity Development
- Funding
- Facilities, Tools, and Innovations
- Policy and Governance
The workshop participants worked together to identify challenges and craft solutions within each category. This framework allowed for the team to draft actionable items with an emphasis on early engagement with local stakeholders. Without local community buy in, coral restoration and conservation projects tend to be detrimental for the success and longevity of projects. Empowering communities with the tools and resources needed for conservation efforts allows for sustained ownership and responsibility of the project and thus leads to tangible results.
By the end of the workshop, the participants identified that the creation of a road map and possible scientific publication can be used by CORDAP and other funding entities to progress the international effort to conserve coral reefs. The CORDAP workshop was truly global in scope and gave a platform to elevate the voices of coral reef conservation practitioners that often go unheard. KSLOF is incredibly excited to use the momentum generated at this event to further work with CORDAP to progress capacity development in a global effort for transformative changes to help protect the world’s coral reefs.
CORDAP Capacity Development in the Global South Workshop
