This year, we have been working with the sustainability platform Pinwheel to support four marine based projects. Coralive is one of the verified non-profits to benefit from this new initiative. Founder and director Aki Allahgholi explains how his environmental non-profit is powering the future of coral restoration, as part of global efforts to preserve and protect coastal marine environments.

By Aki Allahgholi

Coral nurseries are the foundation of coral restoration.

It is always good to have a broodstock of diverse corals which replenishes itself over and over. When the time is right, we harvest those corals and take them to where they are needed and should be planted. Out of one coral, we can grow about 25.

The  propagation projects we work on range from $1 million which allows us to grow 235,000 corals asexually, to $20,000 for smaller grassroots enterprises.

For land based projects where tanks are available, we apply micro fragmentation. We cut small corals and place the pieces next to each other. They then go into repair mode which allows then to grow 30 times faster depending on the species, and they then fuse together. We have noticed that one small piece takes about 12 years to mature, but if we put 10 to 15 pieces together, they fuse into a large colony and mature in three to four years. We are trying to speed up the process and save time because we have to.

Why coral is important

Coral has several functions.

Shoreline protection is an obvious one. Coral layers calm down the energy from the ocean. With climate change, this energy is becoming stronger, as shown by the Category 4 hurricane in the Caribbean this July – an unusual occurrence, especially for that time of year.

Coral is the foundation of biodiversity in the ocean. Everything in the ocean has its roots in coral. It’s the home of all the critters, fish etc – it is the baseline of the food web. It creates food security for people who live by the ocean. And combinations of corals can also be used in cancer research.
Tourism is another main driver. White sand comes from corals.

The magical triangle

Climate change – changes in water temperature, quality and chemistry  – are the three main drivers of coral decline.

With them comes plastic waste and untreated sewage. Two projects funded by the Global Fund for Coral Reefs paid for the installation of waste management facilities in Fiji and Egypt because plastic is a major destroyer of coral reefs. Eliminating the main stressors in order to save what remains is the starting point for any rebuilding process.

Then there is what I call the magical triangle between corals, sea grass and mangroves. We manage mangrove reforestations and the planting of seagrass. These are the powerhouse of shorelines and they play an important role in carbon sequestration.

Everyone is keen to protect them because of the Blue Economy¹. Now, universities worldwide but especially in the Red Sea are very close to determining the carbon sequestration potential of corals. Could we provide carbon credits with coral, maybe in combination with biodiversity credits, something which up until now has not been achieved? 

If we can put together the magical triangle, that would be an amazing next step in conservation.

A race against time

The fragmentation of a coral is called asexual propagation, but we also specialise in sexual propagation.

Coral is a community of animals called polyps. They live in symbiosis with an algae called zooxanthellae. This uses sunlight to create a sugar which gives the polyp energy, allowing it to extend its tentacles and grab plankton in the water, put it in its mouth and produce calcium carbonate which is the structure of the coral.

Every coral is different. Some grow very fast; some grow slowly depending on the function they have in the environment. Once or twice a year, the reproductive cycle of the coral kicks in and mostly during full moon, the same species in the same region release their egg bundles. The majority of corals can’t self-fertilise so they need two colonies of the same species. The egg bundles are released, they meet at the surface, break open in the wave action and cross fertilise each other. They produce larvae which then settle in the reef and start a new colony. It’s a truly magical event.

That is the natural cycle, however the majority of these egg bundles are eaten by fish. So we collect as many of them as possible and cross fertilise them under controlled conditions. We do this because the offspring of coral are usually more resilient to the environmental stresses experienced by the mother colony they came from. If we can raise as many baby corals through sexual reproduction as possible, then we can address some of the challenges of climate change now and in the future.

What would $20,000 achieve?

Funds from Ocean’s Pinwheel initiative would likely be used to expand existing projects with trustworthy partners. In places like West Papua or Madagascar, every dollar that goes into coral restoration has a wider impact on the immediate population. People are poor and directly dependent on a healthy ocean, healthy reef, healthy fish stock. So we train people to become coral farmers. The fish population then increases over time, improving the lives of those who depend on the environment.

According to need and possibility, we can direct funding into smaller scale projects. Our marine biologists and technicians spend time with local environmentalists to make an assessment before opening a new coral nursery.

In West Papua, we have created four nurseries with more than 3,000 corals. An additional problem is shore erosion, so we also created barriers behind which we created a mangrove forest as a living breakwater. As you can see, every project is highly individual. The local conditions are so unique to every location, so we have to adapt every approach and listen to the experience of our local partners.

For further information visit Coralive – Scaling up coral restoration around Fregate Island (youtube.com) and watch Konstantinus’ Legacy – Awakening the Love for Nature (youtube.com).


1. “The sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystem.” (source: World Bank) The European Commission defines it as “All economic activities related to oceans, seas and coasts”.