Spatio-Temporal Monitoring and Rehabilitation Technology of Coral Reefs (SMaRT-Corals)

Management of marine reserves is inherently political, but to become truly effective, policies must be firmly grounded in science. In the Philippines, the management of large oceanic marine reserves remains a challenge to the government. The SMaRT-Corals project was conceptualized to meet this challenge and help preserve one of the country’s biodiversity hotspots, the Apo Reef Natural Park. The project’s goal is to build a long-term database on key community parameters of the reef to better understand the system in support of crafting management strategies that are cost-effective in achieving specific conservation targets.

This initial phase of a projected long-term study has three important components; community monitoring, assisted rehabilitation, and capacity building. Central to the project is the conduct of a comprehensive benthic community and reef fish monitoring activities. Through monitoring of these communities, the project aims to develop a recovery model of ARNP, which will be used to evaluate its performance in the face of disturbance. The model will have important applications in prioritizing and crafting management interventions to enhance the overall resilience of the reef complex. The second component of the project is active restoration. Philippine reefs have degraded through the years, and rehabilitation activities have become an important component of good management practices to facilitate recovery.

This is the first active restoration undertaking in the country that is conducted in a high-energy reef area to assist and expedite the recovery of hard corals and improve local biodiversity. Learnings from this component of the project will provide important insights into the conduct of assisted rehabilitation in Philippine oceanic reefs. To support these undertakings and ensure the continuity of effective management, capacity-building activities were also conducted under the project. Personnel directly involved in the protection and operation of the protected area were trained on the use of tools and techniques in the assessment of benthic and reef fish communities. The information generated and learnings from capacity-building activities under the SMaRT-Corals Project will serve as a basis for future studies and training to achieve sustainable and effective management of ARNP.