Restoration Mentored Online Course – Kenya, 2020

Lamu Restoration Workshop 2020. Photo © Juliet Karisa

The Reef Resilience Network and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Africa are working together to build reef restoration capacity in Kenya and restore the health of coral reefs to enhance local fisheries and support community livelihoods.

A two-month mentored online course (June through September 2020) for 14 managers, practitioners, scientists, and community leaders from Kenya resulted in the first cohort of regional restoration practitioners trained in reef restoration planning and best practices. During the course and with support from global restoration experts and course mentors, participants successfully developed a plan for restoring half a hectare of reef within a locally managed marine area in Lamu, Kenya, using low-cost and low-tech restoration methods to improve local fish populations including the lobster fishery.

The online training was followed by an in-person, field-based workshop with 47 participants to support Pate Marine Community Conservancy in implementing the reef restoration plan in Lamu. During the workshop, the restoration cohort – including representatives from TNC, Northern Rangelands Trust-Coast, Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, Kenya Wildlife Service, and the County Government of Lamu – provided on-the-ground technical support to engage local stakeholders on piloting the reef restoration plan and building restoration skills within the local fishing community. Through this work, the restoration cohort further developed their skills and understanding of reef restoration.

Thanks to the course supporters and collaborators including course mentors Phanor Montoya Maya and Boze Hancock.

Interested in learning about reef restoration? Explore our restoration toolkit or take the online course.