Ningaloo Coast WHA chosen as public-private consortium pioneers global leadership in climate adaptation across UNESCO World Heritage sites.
The Resilient Reefs initiative is a four-year, $US9 million global effort to build the capacity of five World Heritage coral reef communities to respond to climate change.
This is a world first – coral reef managers working with global resilience experts and local community stakeholders to build and embed holistic resilience into managing World Heritage coral reef sites.
The project will build climate resilience leadership in an initial five of the world’s most treasured coral reefs and their communities, including;
- Rock Islands Southern Lagoon (Palau),
- Lagoons of New Caledonia (France)
- Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System (Belize)
- Ningaloo Coast and the Great Barrier Reef (Australia)
Why were these 5 sites selected?
These sites were selected for several reasons, including:
- local leadership is engaged and ready to take action;
- they are among the most ecologically significant and exceptionally biodiverse coral reefs on the planet;
- World Heritage sites can be especially influential proof points for other sites around the world; and
- their diversity in size, scale, and management will enrich the field with examples of how to deliver solutions in many different contexts
Program support to World Heritage coral reef sites includes;
- Capacity building for local reef managers and stakeholders
- Support in the creation and funding of a new Chief Resilience Office (CRO) position, who will be responsible for leading the site’s resilience building efforts
- Detailed support in the development of a holistic Resilience Strategy focused on risk analysis and stakeholder engagement
- Initial funding to implement actions designed in the strategy
- Connection to a global Knowledge Network that supports learning exchanges among the 5 sites and scales lessons learned to reef managers globally