Coral Reef Ecosystem Management
Cultural Significance of Coral Reefs
Coral reefs play a vital role in maintaining human wellbeing and a healthy planet through the ecosystem services they provide and the blue carbon and marine biodiversity they support. However, the importance of coral reefs is much greater when you start thinking beyond their benefits based on scientific metrics and economic values. These spaces are important regions of cultural heritage and traditional knowledge for people all over the world. Harnessing the cultural significance of coral ecosystems and acknowledging and honoring the centuries of protection and appreciation is a powerful solution to the climate crisis.
Indigenous and traditional communities have sustainably occupied coral ecosystems across the planet for centuries. The people in these communities thrived by sustainably caring for the marine resources on which they depended for fishing, collecting shellfish, and hunting. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, for example, are the traditional custodians of the Great Barrier Reef. They are linked to the reef spiritually, socially, economically, and environmentally, which is represented in their stories, paintings, dances, and songs that generations have passed down. Their roots in the Great Barrier Reef date back 60,000 years. In the Mediterranean, traditional occupants of reef regions believed coral had spiritual powers to protect children and warriors against harm and threats. And Ancient Egyptians believed coral offered protection against demon spirits in the afterlife.
The disappearance of reef ecosystems therefore wipes out important cultural connections that humans have to coral. The degradation of these environments also erases valuable traditional knowledge about how to sustainably manage marine ecosystems. Furthermore, according to David Obura from the IUCN Coral Specialist Group, coral reefs are mostly located adjacent to low-income countries, which means that the ecosystem services and cultural benefits provided by the reefs are disproportionately important to these countries. This also means that the decline of coral reef ecosystems will disproportionately yield a decline in human well-being and climate resilience in lower income countries due to the disappearance of fish populations, reduction in storm protection, and the loss of important cultural sites.
Indigenous and Traditional Sustainable Resource Use
There is hope, however. Indigenous and traditional communities have historically interwoven their culture, spirituality, and sustainable resource management to care for reefs. They hold extensive knowledge about sustainable resource use passed down through practices and in oral histories. Their methods have proven successful for thousands of years, and they can be preserved and applied to climate mitigation and adaptation today. Thus, urgently empowering these communities to be leaders in the management of these ecosystems is essential within global efforts to address coral reef degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change.
Although there is much work to do be done in putting these principles into practice, there are people working to support Indigenous and traditional roles in the management of coral reef ecosystems. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Part Authority is working with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait people to protect the reef for future generations. They have developed a partnership to govern the reef that includes the Marine Park Authority Board and an Indigenous Reef Advisory Committee. Additionally, the Great Barrier Reef’s Marine Park Zoning Plan 2003’s Native Title Act 1993 formally honors the rights of these people to continue their traditional practices in these regions, from harvesting food to protecting cultural sites. It also formally involves them in the governance and management of these spaces. Today, more than half of Great Barrier Reef’s catchment and approximately 15% of the World Heritage Area is under the authority of Indigenous people, interests, or co-management arrangements.
There urgently needs to be greater efforts on the local, state, national, and international level to establish a genuine framework and foundation for Indigenous and traditional led governance and partnership in management of marine resources. Doing so will help preserve the cultural, economic, and environmental benefits of coral reef ecosystems now and well into the future.
