Managing Local Threats
Local threats such as destructing fishing practices, coastal development, disease, invasive species, and wastewater pollution contribute to the decline of coral reef health at regional scales. Managing these threats is critical to reduce pressures on coral reefs and improve their capacity to resist and recover from other pervasive threats such as climate threats.
This section describes strategies to manage local threats by:
- Protecting herbivores
- Implementing temporary closures
- Managing land-based impacts
- Managing recreational uses
- Invasive species
- Sargassum
- Coral predators
- Coral diseases

Recreational users and commercial tourism operators play an important role in reef conservation and management. Photo © Jennifer Adler
Refer to the Coral Reef Resilience Online Course Lesson 6: Management Strategies for Resilience for more details on reef management strategies.