Scaling up the global reef restoration activity: Avoiding ecological imperialism and ongoing colonialism
The health and condition of the world's reefs are in steep decline. This has triggered the development of fledgling micro-scale coral reef restoration projects along many reef coastlines. However, it is increasingly recognised that the scale and productivity of micro-scale coral gardening proje...
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ftqueensland:oai:eprints.qut.edu.au:237025 2024-05-12T08:03:46+00:00 Scaling up the global reef restoration activity: Avoiding ecological imperialism and ongoing colonialism Gibbs, Mark T. Gibbs, Bridget L. Newlands, Maxine Ivey, Jordan 2021-05-06 application/pdf https://eprints.qut.edu.au/237025/ unknown Public Library of Science https://eprints.qut.edu.au/237025/1/118921700.pdf doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0250870 Gibbs, Mark T., Gibbs, Bridget L., Newlands, Maxine, & Ivey, Jordan (2021) Scaling up the global reef restoration activity: Avoiding ecological imperialism and ongoing colonialism. PLoS ONE, 16(5), Article number: e0250870. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/237025/ free_to_read http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 2021 The Authors This work is covered by copyright. Unless the document is being made available under a Creative Commons Licence, you must assume that re-use is limited to personal use and that permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. If the document is available under a Creative Commons License (or other specified license) then refer to the Licence for details of permitted re-use. It is a condition of access that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. If you believe that this work infringes copyright please provide details by email to qut.copyright@qut.edu.au PLoS ONE Contribution to Journal 2021 ftqueensland https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250870 2024-04-17T14:41:21Z The health and condition of the world's reefs are in steep decline. This has triggered the development of fledgling micro-scale coral reef restoration projects along many reef coastlines. However, it is increasingly recognised that the scale and productivity of micro-scale coral gardening projects will be insufficient to meet the growing global threats to reefs. More recently, efforts to develop and implement restoration techniques for application at regional scales have been pursued by research organisations. Coral reefs are mostly located in the unindustrialised world. Yet, most of the funding, and scientific and engineering method development for larger-scale methods will likely be sourced and created in the industrialised world. Therefore, the development of the emerging at-scale global reef restoration sector will inevitably involve the transfer of methods, approaches, finances, labour and skills from the industrialised world to the unindustrialised world. This opens the door to the industrialised world negatively impacting the unindustrialised world and, in some cases, First Nations peoples. In Western scientific parlance, ecological imperialism occurs when people from industrialised nations seek to recreate environments and ecosystems in unindustrialised nations that are familiar and comfortable to them. How a coral reef 'should' look depends on one's background and perspective. While predominately Western scientific approaches provide guidance on the ecological principles for reef restoration, these methods might not be applicable in every scenario in unindustrialised nations. Imposing such views on Indigenous coastal communities without the local technical and leadership resources to scale-up restoration of their reefs can lead to unwanted consequences. The objective of this paper is to introduce this real and emerging risk into the broader reef restoration discussion. Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations Queensland University of Technology: QUT ePrints PLOS ONE 16 5 e0250870 |
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Queensland University of Technology: QUT ePrints |
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The health and condition of the world's reefs are in steep decline. This has triggered the development of fledgling micro-scale coral reef restoration projects along many reef coastlines. However, it is increasingly recognised that the scale and productivity of micro-scale coral gardening projects will be insufficient to meet the growing global threats to reefs. More recently, efforts to develop and implement restoration techniques for application at regional scales have been pursued by research organisations. Coral reefs are mostly located in the unindustrialised world. Yet, most of the funding, and scientific and engineering method development for larger-scale methods will likely be sourced and created in the industrialised world. Therefore, the development of the emerging at-scale global reef restoration sector will inevitably involve the transfer of methods, approaches, finances, labour and skills from the industrialised world to the unindustrialised world. This opens the door to the industrialised world negatively impacting the unindustrialised world and, in some cases, First Nations peoples. In Western scientific parlance, ecological imperialism occurs when people from industrialised nations seek to recreate environments and ecosystems in unindustrialised nations that are familiar and comfortable to them. How a coral reef 'should' look depends on one's background and perspective. While predominately Western scientific approaches provide guidance on the ecological principles for reef restoration, these methods might not be applicable in every scenario in unindustrialised nations. Imposing such views on Indigenous coastal communities without the local technical and leadership resources to scale-up restoration of their reefs can lead to unwanted consequences. The objective of this paper is to introduce this real and emerging risk into the broader reef restoration discussion. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gibbs, Mark T. Gibbs, Bridget L. Newlands, Maxine Ivey, Jordan |
spellingShingle |
Gibbs, Mark T. Gibbs, Bridget L. Newlands, Maxine Ivey, Jordan Scaling up the global reef restoration activity: Avoiding ecological imperialism and ongoing colonialism |
author_facet |
Gibbs, Mark T. Gibbs, Bridget L. Newlands, Maxine Ivey, Jordan |
author_sort |
Gibbs, Mark T. |
title |
Scaling up the global reef restoration activity: Avoiding ecological imperialism and ongoing colonialism |
title_short |
Scaling up the global reef restoration activity: Avoiding ecological imperialism and ongoing colonialism |
title_full |
Scaling up the global reef restoration activity: Avoiding ecological imperialism and ongoing colonialism |
title_fullStr |
Scaling up the global reef restoration activity: Avoiding ecological imperialism and ongoing colonialism |
title_full_unstemmed |
Scaling up the global reef restoration activity: Avoiding ecological imperialism and ongoing colonialism |
title_sort |
scaling up the global reef restoration activity: avoiding ecological imperialism and ongoing colonialism |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://eprints.qut.edu.au/237025/ |
genre |
First Nations |
genre_facet |
First Nations |
op_source |
PLoS ONE |
op_relation |
https://eprints.qut.edu.au/237025/1/118921700.pdf doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0250870 Gibbs, Mark T., Gibbs, Bridget L., Newlands, Maxine, & Ivey, Jordan (2021) Scaling up the global reef restoration activity: Avoiding ecological imperialism and ongoing colonialism. PLoS ONE, 16(5), Article number: e0250870. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/237025/ |
op_rights |
free_to_read http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 2021 The Authors This work is covered by copyright. Unless the document is being made available under a Creative Commons Licence, you must assume that re-use is limited to personal use and that permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. If the document is available under a Creative Commons License (or other specified license) then refer to the Licence for details of permitted re-use. It is a condition of access that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. If you believe that this work infringes copyright please provide details by email to qut.copyright@qut.edu.au |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250870 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
e0250870 |
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