[Coral-List] High Risk that shadow projects may affect resilience of coral reefs

Nohora Galvis icri.colombia at gmail.com
Thu Jun 24 17:59:45 UTC 2021


Dear Colleagues,

As mentioned in the most recent messages about the Colombian
Government large scale restoration projects based on coral breaking,
the main causes of coral reef degradation in governmental protected
areas have not been solved and the promise to save coral reefs by
breaking coral colonies, may add to the local factors that affect the
resilience of coral reefs.

Phanor Montoya wrote; “Although Colombia has National Natural Parks
and marine protected areas that protect almost 90% of its coral reefs,
no clear signs of reef recovery have been observed after significant
degradation due to natural disturbances…. explained by the continuous
impact of human actions within MPAs”. Since the ICRS 2000, I have
presented findings of low management effectiveness, that is why now in
the Observatory of Coral reefs, we are providing warnings to the top
decision makers based on early alerts within our Citizen science
Program to better prevent further coral reef direct destruction by
anchoring, dredging, military bombing, illegal fishing, hurricanes
etc. that break coral colonies. Besides, other local threats caused by
pollution, sedimentation, invasive species and contagious diseases
among other local causes of degradation are not tackled by the
managers. Of course, being sincere is not popular and top decision
makers are willing to pay for shadow projects that promise to save
coral reefs without controlling local degradation causes.

We got skeptical about the restoration projects of Phanor when he
shared during the plenary of Reef Futures 2018, how he convince
funders of restoration projects by “praising their ego”. The Colombian
President and Environment Minister and the chief of CORALINA liked
that and Phanor has been successful fully funded at international and
national level to scale up his plans by saying that the Hurricane Iota
category 5, did not cause damage to the coral reefs, nor dredging is
detrimental for bottom habitats of Seaflower and MPAs have not
difference with other MPAs of the Caribbean Sea, which contradicts
what he says at the beginning of his message about degraded Colombian
MPAs and intense climate change impacts.

The facts are that INVEMAR did presented a report after Hurricane Iota
presenting negative impacts till 12m deep
https://www.semana.com/medio-ambiente/articulo/arrecifes-coralinos-de-providencia-gravemente-afectados-por-el-paso-de-iota/58079/
 and Dredging the Providencia Channel got license in 2018 to removed
>308000m3 to deposit the sediment, several kilometers closer to dive
sites and coral reef areas in Seaflower. This governmental
contradictions are the ones that make fishers communities to protest
against the government decisions, as they have not seen  the
investment on solutions to their basic needs for shelter and food
security related to the rebuilding of Providencia Island and they have
to go further to fish at the boundaries with Nicaragua. In fact, the
scenario after Hurricane Iota Category 5 that destroys 98% of the
infrastructure was an opportunity to rebuild the small town in a
sustainable way more environmental friendly to avoid further local
pollution. However, only two new houses have been built in seven
months https://www.portafolio.co/economia/solo-2-casas-se-han-construido-en-san-andres-y-providencia-tras-iota-552797

Coral Reefs Optimism should be based on the assumption that coral
reefs must not be degraded any further, at least locally.
Nevertheless, the Colombian Government stipulated that for any
proposed project (e.g. Dredging) which is detrimental to the ecosystem
integrity, provision be made for the realization (or the financing) of
a shadow project. These shadow projects as local scale have been
implemented but different researchers in the past decade. We agree
with innovative and interesting proposal from other researchers that
will study the spawning / recruitment success
https://www.facebook.com/CarmabiMarineBiologicalStation/photos/a.573897512668909/4241375142587776/.
However, the focus of the Colombian Government is now to scale up the
breaking coral colonies without stopping local degradation causes.

We are writing an official letter to the Ministry of Environment to
request not to develop such a project on the Hope Spot Capurgana-Cabo
Tiburon Hope Spot (Our Resilient case study) as there, it is still
coral natural recruitment within a bottom-up protection scheme and
scientific reports of the best healthy Acropora cover. We recommend to
leave it as a control site. Although it is not yet included within the
National Park Systems, fishers from other governmental protected areas
have learned that this is the most resilient coral reef of the
Colombian Continental Caribbean and are now increasing the fishing
pressure in this resilient coral reef area. Our local observers of the
reefs are removing big nets that have been placed illegally so in that
sense we do request the Navy to support the local scuba diver
operators and artisanal fishers that help to improve governance.


-- 
Cordial saludo,

Nohora Galvis

Directora,
Observatorio Internacional de Arrecifes Coralinos
Fundación ICRI Colombia
Coordinadora Red Internacional de Observadores Voluntarios del Arrecife
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