Natural Capitalism: Compost

Problem: Fish spawning aggregations are extremely important to local ecosystems and economies, but they are not resilient to anything greater than light fishing pressure. In some cases, FSAs have been lost even from subsistence fishing1, which is often considered sustainable2.   The reasons for FSA vulnerability...

Action: This module of the Reef Resilience Toolkit focuses mainly on the conservation of Reef Fish Spawning Aggregations (FSAs). Although the problems facing global fisheries are diverse, we have chosen to focus on fish spawning aggregations because of their extreme susceptibility to over-fishing, and their importance as part of the resilience model. Maintaining healthy breeding populations (seed sources) of reef fish is c...

Problem: This toolkit addresses the question asked by managers pondering what they can do at the local scale to reduce the impacts of global climate change which are (1) increased sea surface temperatures, (2) increased storm frequency and intensity, (3) acidification of oceans, and (4) altered oceanic currents. Solutions involve both daily management activities and planning for change Uncertainty is what makes our current situation most challenging. However, it is possible to build flexibility and ad...

Action: This module of the Reef Resilience Toolkit focuses on the problem of coral bleaching and actions that managers can take to address this problem, specifically in the context of marine protected areas. Given the scope of global climate change and the recent mass bleaching events that have occurred in every ocean, many managers may assume that there is little that can be done on a local scale. However, there are strategies and approaches that managers can employ to minimize the impacts of bleach...