GLOBAL CORAL CONSERVATORY
In 2023 we started a collaboration with the GCC committing to a proposal by the Oceanographic Institute and Scientific Centre of Monaco, supported by the Prince Albert II Foundation.
The goal is to help the international effort to create a global bank for reef-building corals that will serve as a reservoir for coral reef conservation, research and restoration purposes.
Ph: Veronica Reverse
THE NOAH's ARK
OF CORALS
Coral reefs are threatened by climate change and in particular by rising water temperatures. The Plum Foundation supports several projects around the world focused on coral protection. We strongly believe that reef restoration must go along with scientific research, in order to contrast the corals loss and enhance it's resilience.The World Coral Conservarory is consortium of scientists, aquarium curators and NGOs working on the ground for reef restoration committed to build a “Noah’s Ark” for reef-building corals.
Ph: Jimmy Chang
The project is to create a global reference centre that will house, in a network of public and private aquaria, a unique global collection of the majority of scleractinian (reef-building) coral species and strains described to date, in the form of living colonies .
The public aquaria will be reservoirs for conservation, restoration and research, but also laboratories for the implementation of stress resistant breeding operations.
The aim is to preserve as many species as possible and to establish a global platform for the sharing of biological material and for the exchange and production of knowledge.
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This conservancy will help protect coral reef biodiversity using solution-based approaches that combine science, conservation and reef management.
It will increase the ability of reef organisms to tolerate stress and facilitate recovery from disturbance, using the “evolutionary-assisted approach” to improve the resilience of coral reefs.
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A joint work of the technical and scientific committee established to guide and advise the Conservatory, this article is signed by several experts in coral biology and by the directors and curators of major public aquariums.