Nudibranchs, pencil urchins, coral crabs, spiny lobsters, sea anemones. What do they have in common? They are all invertebrates and neighbors sharing the same home on the iquijorReef!
Over the past 12 months, together with our scientific partners and local community, we have been closely monitoring how life returns to this new habitat deployed in the Minalulan Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Siquijor, Philippines.
Some early observations after the first year:
🪸 nearly 5,000 young corals have settled on the reef
🪸 the average size of corals nearly tripled over the second half of the year
🐟 the reef now hosts almost 3× more fish and higher species diversity than a nearby non-regenerated sandy site
🦑 invertebrate diversity and abundance are ~4× higher on the regenerated reef than at the sand control site
For us, reef regeneration is exactly about this: creating habitat and giving ecosystems the chance to rebuild over time.
Many thanks to Accor for supporting long-term reef regeneration, and our local partners involved in the monitoring: Silliman University (Official), Dr. Aileen Maypa, CCEF Philippines, Patricia Stöckli, LGU of Maria, BFAR-PFO Siquijor, DENR PENRO, Brgy. Minalulan.
read the full report here