RAISING CORAL COSTA RICA

Coral reefs provide coastal protection for communities, habitat for fish, and millions of dollars in recreation and tourism, among other benefits. However, corals are also severely threatened by rapidly worsening environmental conditions.

Corals are extremely valuable, contributing about $10 trillion a year globally  to the economy. Hundreds of millions of people depend on coral reefs for food, livelihoods, cultural practices, and a variety of economic benefits. Corals also provide habitat for fish and other marine species and protection for valuable coastal infrastructure. 

Coral reefs are damaged due to changing water temperatures, ocean acidification, pollution, invasive species, changing weather patterns, and physical impacts from ship groundings and storms. 

The world has lost 30 to 50 percent of its coral reefs already. Without significant intervention, tropical reef ecosystems could face global extinction by the end of the century.

Although Central America has coral reefs along both coasts, Raising Coral began their work on the Pacific side of Costa Rica.  The reefs here are built by a handful of coral species, but they are important because they support a high biodiversity of marine life. They are also proving to be resilient to climate change, so we want to culture these survivors for restoring reefs that can withstand future warming.  Raising Coral is the first major project to restore the Pacific reefs of Central America.