Coral Reefs and Climate Change: Learn about the project driving Climate Smart Reef Management in Palau

The Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC) is developing a Climate-Smart Adaptive Management Framework for Palauan Coral Reefs. This project aims to guide the management and preparation of Palau’s reefs for future climate stress. The framework will provide community members, stakeholders, and government officials with guidelines on a comprehensive approach to incorporating climate change threats into coral reef management plans, as well as conducting climate-smart coral restoration by outplanting heat-tolerant coral recruits.

To explain this project, PICRC has released a video created in collaboration with project partners. The video outlines the project’s purpose and highlights the importance of innovative measures to protect Palau’s coral reefs. This video was produced by Jesse Alpert and can be viewed on PICRC’s social media pages and YouTube. 

The climate-smart framework document, detailing how to conduct climate-smart coral reef restoration, will be available to the public in Palauan and English next year. This release follows review sessions with Palauan community members and local stakeholders.

Additionally, the project aims to build the capacity of Palauan rangers and community members through a training workshop. Participants will learn about climate-smart coral restoration methods and how to outplant heat-tolerant coral recruits grown at PICRC.

This project is led by PICRC and Newcastle University, in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy and funded by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

If you have any inquiries about this project, please contact the Director of the Outreach Department, Adeeshia I. Tellei, at [email protected] or Project Researcher, Lauren Piot, at [email protected].