Session: S-181
Coral reef conservation in a rapidly changing world: traditional strategies and new paradigms

In the face of climate change, warming oceans, and catastrophic bleaching, coral reef conservation is at a timely crossroads. Human population growth, land conversion, and demand for coastal and marine resources further compound climate change impacts. To address these diverse impacts in a changing climate, there is a new urgency to support and strengthen a rich history of local and regional conservation partnerships and actions around... [ view more ]

In the face of climate change, warming oceans, and catastrophic bleaching, coral reef conservation is at a timely crossroads. Human population growth, land conversion, and demand for coastal and marine resources further compound climate change impacts. To address these diverse impacts in a changing climate, there is a new urgency to support and strengthen a rich history of local and regional conservation partnerships and actions around managing fisheries and water quality and conserving potential climate refuges. The goal of this transdisciplinary symposium is to synthesize and summarize the diversity of tools, approaches, and solutions for coral reef conservation across scales and to understand the enabling conditions that lead to successful coral reef conservation, now and into the future. We invite talks from conservation practitioners, research scientists, policy-makers, entrepreneurs, and other outside-the-box thinkers that highlight: 1) ways to strengthen and develop practical solutions towards coral reef conservation and management to ensure the persistence of coral reefs in a changing world; 2) conservation strategies that promote biodiversity and ecological functioning, social equity, and food and livelihood security; and 3) policy and legislative approaches to support conservation outcomes, compliance and enforcement of policies, and financial mechanisms for the sustainable delivery of resources. This symposium complements the proposed symposium “novel approaches to the conservation and management of coral reefs under climate change” and we propose to have them run sequentially. The objective of the symposium is produce a policy-relevant position paper and online blog that summarizes the main findings and discussion during the symposium.