Over the past twenty years, coral reef restoration has seen unprecedented growth worldwide. From Indonesia to the Caribbean, thousands of projects have been launched with the goal of “saving” coral reefs - often by planting coral fragments or building artificial reef structures.
As scientists who have worked on both natural and restored reefs for decades, we’ve watched this movement grow with hope and admiration. Yet we’ve also noticed that a crucial piece is missing.
In our new paper, published in the journal Restoration Ecology, we argue that most restoration programmes focus their efforts on increasing coral growth, but rarely ask whether the reef is actually functioning as a living ecosystem.
