InCORE
Towards a Sustainable and Resilient Coral Reef Ecosystem
Integrated Approach for Coral Reef Conservation and Rehabilitation -- ”InCORE”
InCORE (Integrated Approach for Coral Reef Conservation and Rehabilitation) is a comprehensive approach developed for sustainable coral reef conservation and rehabilitation. InCORE encompasses various components such as environmental assessment, rehabilitation implementation, periodical monitoring, terrestrial load reduction across watersheds, and capacity development through training workshops and other means. The key challenge of InCORE is how to enhance the resilience of reef ecosystems. In other words, the project focuses on how to recover the reef ecosystems well from episodic disturbances intensifying with global warming such as super typhoons and massive coral bleaching during their return period. [Read More]
This Project won an award from by Asian Development Bank (ADB) as part of its "Technology Innovation Challenge for Healthy Oceans - Restore and Protect Coral Reefs." international open call for proposal, aiming to exemplify the effectiveness of a comprehensive program package for coral reef conservation and rehabilitation.
What is "integrated approach"
In previous efforts for coral rehabilitation, there are often lack of pre-monitoring of local and regional environmental factors, continuous management by local stakeholders, and/or post-implementation monitoring and assessment. InCORE proposes an "integrated approach" that includes environmental assessment, implementation of coral rehabilitation units, and validation of effectiveness through simulation models and continuous monitoring with local stakeholders.
What is Coral NetTM
Coral Net is a mesh-like structure that promotes both natural settlement of coral larvae (sexual reproduction) and successful growth of corals (asexual reproduction) by reducing the accumulation of fine particles on substrate surface including red soil. Coral Net also allows suitable light reception and water flow, creating an enabling environment for natural coral settlement and growth. Coral larvae also settle on the underside of the Coral Net, avoiding predation from organisms like crown-of-thorns starfish. [Read More]
Application of simulation model
InCORE applies a simulation modeling for selecting a suitable site for installation of Coral Net with consideration of environmental factors such as wave strength, three dimensional current, water temperature, salinity, turbidity, inorganic nutrients, and so forth. Together with post-installation monitoring, the simulation model can maximize the effect of base structure installation for coral reef restoration unlike conventional methods that mostly rely on the potentials of installed structures alone. The simulation model developed based on careful environmental assessment can provide persuasive suggestions for local stakeholders, and thus drives a motivation for sustainable management [Read More]
Previous Achievement of Coral Net
A simple and low-cost technology of coral restoration developed based on more than ten years of experimental studies in Japan.
NahaPort_Coralnet_ver1.mp4This video clip shows an example of outcomes by installing Coral Net (Okinawa, Japan)
This project focuses on close collaboration with local partners and a series of workshops for capacity-building.
Contact US
incorecoral-info@googlegroups.com
This project is supported by the Asian Development Bank as a part of its "Technology Innovation Challenge for Healthy Oceans -Restore and Protect Coral Reefs".