Search the SPREP Catalogue

Wind, Wave, and Solar powered shore protection and coral reef restoration projects were installed in the Marshall Islands in early 2010 by the Arno Kobamaron Community Base Organization, in collaboration with the Global Reef Alliance and Pacific Aquaculture Cooperatives, funded by the Federal Republic of Germany Federal Foreign Office Task Force for Humanitarian Aid. The projects were installed at Ine Village, Arno Atoll (Wind powered), Jabo Village, Arno Atoll (Wave powered), and Enemanit, Majuro Atoll, (Solar powered). Local community residents were trained in construction and installation skills. These projects will help restore near-shore coral reefs and fisheries habitat, protecting beaches from wave erosion and allowing them to grow. A tidal current project was originally also planned but unfortunately could not be installed during the project period due to delays by the manufacturer. The results of these pilot demonstration projects dramatically demonstrate that local communities can use their own vast and untapped sources of sustainable energy to grow back their coral reef and fisheries resources and protect their islands from erosion by global sea level rise. There is a critically urgent need to replicate this example on a large scale in all low-lying island nations and coasts before global sea level rise accelerates.

Breeding success of 5 Cory’s shearwater Calonectris diomedea sub-colonies of Lavezzu Island (Lavezzi Archipelago, Corsica) was checked annually for 25 consecutive years from 1979 to 2004. Between 1989 and 1994, 4 ship rat Rattus rattus controls were performed in several subcolonies. In November 2000, rats were eradicated from Lavezzu Island and its 16 peripheral islets (85 ha) using traps then toxic baits. We compare cost (number of person-hours required in the field) and benefit (Cory’s shearwater breeding success) of control and eradication. The average breeding success doubled when rats were controlled or eradicated (0.82) compared to the situation without rat management (0.45). Moreover, the average breeding success after eradication (0.86) was significantly (11%) higher than after rat controls (0.75). Furthermore, the great variation in breeding success recorded among sub-colonies both with and without rat control declined dramatically after eradication, suggesting that rats had a major impact on breeding success. The estimated effort needed to perform eradication and checking of the permanent bait-station system during the year following eradication was 1360 person-hours. In contrast, rat control was estimated to require 240 or 1440 person-hours per year when implemented by trained and untrained staff, respectively. Within 6 yr, eradication cost is lower than control cost performed by untrained staff and confers several ecological advantages on more ecosystem components than Cory’s shearwater alone. Improved eradication tools such as hand or aerial broadcasting of toxic baits instead of the fairly labour-intensive eradication strategy we used would dramatically increase the economic advantage of eradication vs. control. Therefore, when feasible, we recommend eradication rather than control of non-native rat populations. Nevertheless, control remains a useful management tool when eradication is not practicable.

The Marshall Islands are critically dependent on the health of their coral reefs: every rock and sand grain on the islands are the remains of coral reef organisms. Only actively growing coral reefs can protect the islands against ocean waves and global sea level rise, and provide fish to feed the people. These crucial services are rapidly deteriorating because global warming is bleaching and killing corals, while also accelerating the spread and virulence of coral-killing diseases. As a result every atoll island has a serious erosion problem, which will get much worse as global sea level rise and storm intensity accelerate, unless the reefs that protect the islands can be grown back. The solutions now being used to protect the shoreline are both costly and ineffective. In order to demonstrate practical solutions to these problems we started three pilot coral reef restoration projects and one pilot shore protection project in Majuro using Bjorock® Technology in early 2007.