Coral Nurture Program: Building resilience of Australian Coral Reefs

The Coral Nurture program is a globally unique partnership between the reef tourism industry and UTS scientists to propagate coral at scale as a tool for fast-tracking the recovery of the Great Barrier Reef. In this presentation Ms Lorna Howlett, a Postdoctoral Research Associate and Coral Nurture Program Project Coordinator at UTS, will discuss the successes and challenges of coral propagation-based ‘reef restoration’, and how the approach is delivering new management capacity for the Great Barrier reef through more sustainable tourism operations. Lorna will also cover the benefits and long term impacts of this operation.

About the presenter

Ms Lorna Howlett (University of Technology Sydney) is a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the Future Reefs research team at UTS. Her research focuses on examining effectiveness of coral propagation and out-planting activity on the Great Barrier Reef, including how fine-scale genetic differences regulate survivorship in important coral species used for restoration. Lorna has worked within the reef tourism industry for 5 years prior to starting her PhD and becoming involved with the Coral Nurture Program – a partnership between tourism operators and researchers.