ConservationResilience

Conservation and Reef Resilience

Coral reef conservation is a major part of reef management. Other than being one of the major goals of reef management, adequate conservation efforts are becoming increasingly important as coral reefs are met with more and worse threats. There are many different methods of conservation. The conventional understanding of the concept is setting up conservation zones or protected areas, which is to zone off certain valuable areas so as to protect them from, for example, overfishing. Examples of conservation zones are Marine Protected Areas and Marine Reserves.

How do protected areas conserve reefs?

Directly, protected areas conserve coral reefs by barring off unwanted disturbances. With legislation and enforcement, setting up effective conservation zones can help protect reefs from threats such as littering, certain types of pollution, and other human activities.

However, arguably more importantly, protected areas conserve reefs indirectly by enhancing reef resilience. Resilience is the ability of an ecosystem to