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Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 13:57:33 -0400
From: Barbara Whitman

 I am interesting in learning more about the BiorockŪ alternative to cement structures.  Is funding available to do a project?

Thanks,
Barb Whitman
Nevis

 

Dear Barb,
 We're always ready to work with all serious partners. But there is ABSOLUTELY NO funding available since the concrete lobby and the "resilient reef" believers make sure that no funding goes to serious restoration. They say either you should dump expensive cement on it or you should just declare a marine protected area, sit back, and the reef will bounce back all by itself.

 No government or large funding agency is yet interested because the funding is controlled by the "resilience" racket. Our projects in more than 20 countries have all been done on shoestring in-kind contributions from  local people who remember how their reefs used to be, have seen them vanish, want them back, realize that if they don't start growing corals right now using methods that speed up their growth (typically 2-6 times higher than genetically identical controls in the same habitat, depending on species and conditions), their survival from severe heat shock (16-50 times higher survival than surrounding reefs), and recruitment (orders of magnitude higher) they will lose them all, and recognize that if they want to play funding agency games their reefs will disappear long before any money  to send foreign "experts" to tell them what to do is approved. There is massive denial of what can be done by people who can't be bothered to look for themselves, won't trust their own lying eyes, and believe everything they see in "peer" "reviewed" papers (you can be sure we'll hear more from them on the list server). For developing countries we have no choice but to use the technology we have developed ourselves and kiss technology "transfer" from the rich countries goodbye, because the rich countries certainly don't know how to do it, and refuse to accept that poor islanders do!

 These projects can be any size or shape, and that naturally affects the cost. Around $100 per square meter is fairly typical for a reef say 3-4 meters high, but depending on distance from shore, wave energy, and source of power. We also do MUCH cheaper in-situ restoration with no structures or transplantation but this does not create the incredible fish habitat of our typical designs. Last week at the United Nations I demonstrated wave energy generators that work in waves as small as 10 centimeters, which will allow fisheries habitat restoration and beach restoration projects in places that could not be affordably powered before, But it will be another year before that technology is perfected and widely available.

 There are real costs to be sure. But that is not the real issue. It is far cheaper to maintain the biodiversity. tourism, shore protection, and fisheries benefits of reefs than to build a concrete wall to hold back the sea when they are gone (about $10,000  to $15,000 per meter). We certainly can't save it all from out of control global warming, global sea level rise, new diseases, and pollution, but if we don't restore all we can, what will we have left?

 Best wishes, Tom

 Thomas J. Goreau, PhD President Global Coral Reef Alliance