Introduction

The Maldivian Coral Reef Restoration Workshop is an intensive full-time 80 hours’ hands-on, in-water practical program. In addition to providing an experience on what is involved in coral reef restoration using the coral reef gardening concept, the workshop touches on current best practices, appropriate design, logistics and evaluation of a restoration project.

The workshop will be divided into a series of classroom lessons and field activities. It will be coordinated by Dr Phanor H Montoya-Maya a certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner by the Society for Ecological Restoration, who has worked for the past eight years on large-scale coral reef restoration via coral gardening in the Seychelles (USAID/UNDP-GEF-funded “Reef Rescuers: Restoring Reefs in the Face of Climate Change”), Colombia (Community-based coral reef restoration with Corales de Paz), and Florida (Restoration Program Manager for the Coral Restoration Foundation).

Lessons will be held at the MaRHE Center (Marine Research and High Education Center) of Milano-Bicocca University in Magoodhoo Island, Faafu Atoll, Republic of Maldives Maldives. All field activities will be carried out on SCUBA diving and snorkelling equipment. This workshop will result in the set-up of the Magoodhoo Island first coral nurseries, a collaboration between the University of Milano-Bicocca, Corales de Paz and Coral Restoration Foundation.

Content of the workshop

The course will consist of a series of lectures and field activities held by international researchers with experience working in tropical marine environments. Classes will be held at the Bicocca University advanced training center. All field activities in the sea will be done by scuba diving.

After this training period you will be able to:

• build Coral Tree^TM nurseries,
• populate coral nurseries,
• maintain and monitor underwater coral nurseries,
• outplant corals onto a degraded reef site,
• improve your knowledge on coral identification,
• assess coral health conditions,
• assess and monitor sites for coral reef restoration,
• understand best practices for carrying out your own coral reef restoration project.

By attending the workshop, participants will earn an ‘Open Badge’ , a digital international certification to recognize the skills and competences you will get on coral reef restoration through the Workshop.  The Open Badge is released by the University of the Milano-Bicocca.