Allamanda Resort opens coral nursery to restore Anse Forbans coral reef |23 February 2018

‘If we lose the corals, we lose everything’ 

In January 2018, DoubleTree by Hilton Seychelles Allamanda Resort & Spa, in collaboration with the Anse Forbans Community Conservation Programme (AFCCP), embarked on a journey to support the preparations and opening of a coral nursery to restore the Anse Forbans coral reef – a community-based project which is being managed and led by Chloe Pozas-Schacre of non-government organisation (NGO) Marine Conservation Society Seychelles (MCSS). The Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) has sponsored a part of this project.

Seychelles NATION met Chloe, a marine biologist by profession, to learn more about coral reefs and the coral nursery. Corals are the foundation of one the most complex and diverse ecosystems on earth. Coral reefs cover only 0.2% of the ocean floor and host 25% of all marine biodiversity. However, coral reefs are degrading worldwide on account of local and global human pressures. In the last 30 years, the world has lost nearly 50% of its coral reefs. This increased intensity of human pressures has lowered the capacity of coral reefs to cope with natural disturbances and some reefs cannot recover without intervention.

Coral reefs in Seychelles have become severely impacted over the years with the 1998 bleaching event and recently by a third global bleaching event in 2016 with some areas showing losses of 50% of live coral cover. Loss of coral reefs affects the biodiversity of these areas, and thus their ability to provide food to local communities as well as their erosion mitigating capacity, allowing increased coastal erosion and storm surge flooding of surrounding areas. Similarly, tourism establishments are directly affected by the declining state of the reefs which offer a myriad of activities for which the tourists visit.

The coral reef in the region of Anse Forbans sits in shallow waters that typically also has high sea water temperatures. According to the local people of the area, the coral reef was previously beautiful and pristine so they find it important to rehabilitate the reef and over time increase the biodiversity that once thrived in them.

There is a two-way approach in the restoration of the coral reef: active which constitutes direct manipulation and passive which aims at reducing the stressors (e.g. pollution, overfishing & sedimentation). The slow recovery of some reefs has promoted active rehabilitation strategies in the country. One of the most effective methods is ‘coral gardening’, a two-step process which involves coral nurseries and transplantation.

The AFCCP and the MCSS have partnered to rehabilitate the Anse Forbans reef. This project is entirely community driven. It comprises two restoration strategies; the first is land-based nurseries which consist of two coral tanks.

The main advantages of this strategy are that the tank conditions can be monitored in order to optimise the survivorship and growth of the corals; they provide a sheltered environment to farm very small fragments to maximise the production of corals and they represent an excellent education tool as the corals are shown closely to the visitors which enables improved awareness outreach on coral reef conservation.

The second strategy involves ocean-based nurseries where corals are farmed in underwater structures which will be installed in the Ste Anne Marine National Park. The coral fragments will be farmed until they have reached the suitable size to be transplanted onto artificial reefs installed on damaged reef areas. After their transplantation, the abundance of coral colonies remaining on the reef will be increased as will the coral biodiversity and the structural complexity. Coral colonies will also provide coral larvae that will recruit on the reef once they have reached their sexual maturity.

The ultimate goal of reef restoration is to enhance the reef resilience and to help corals to cope with future conditions. The corals still existing on the reefs today have survived multiple stressors under climate change and their transplantation will spread resistant genotypes and therefore enhance the resilience of the restored areas.

However, reef restoration can only be a tool as it will never match the scale of reef degradation worldwide. There is an urgent need to reduce the impacts that human populations put on coral reefs as the frequency and intensity of coral bleaching is approaching unsustainable levels in the coming decades meaning coral bleaching events are likely to occur annually by 2050.

Chloe adds that the restoration field of science is fairly new and that scientists do not yet know whether they can restore entirely functioning reef systems. As a result, she finds that much of her work is trial and error based. It is in her opinion that there should be a national coral reef conservation/restoration strategy put in place by a coalition between all the stakeholders (e.g. government & NGOs) to scale up the restoration efforts and improve the management strategies.

Doreen D’Souza, resort manager at DoubleTree by Hilton Seychelles Allamanda Resort & Spa, said that Hilton is an advocate for sustainable practices, particularly those that protect the environment and as such, the resort, like all other hotels under the Hilton brand, are asked to participate in activities that promote sustainable practices as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme. It is for this reason that the coral nursery project has been welcomed and is being supported by the resort.

Doreen adds that such an initiative is also appreciated by their guests who are keen to learn more about it and thus the resort remains committed to providing all the support to the project and to those involved.