Resilience-Based Management

Course Description

Beginning with an overview of coral reef resilience principles, the Resilience-Based Management Online Course provides a core understanding of how to build resilience into management and introduces learners to a process that provides guidance on developing a resilience strategy at the local scale. The course features four self-paced online lessons, available in English, Bahasa Indonesia, French, and Spanish. After completing the course, participants will be able to download a Certificate of Completion. 

This new, free resource was developed with global experts, in partnership with the Resilient Reefs Initiative, Great Barrier Reef Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coral Reef Conservation Program, and the International Coral Reef Initiative. 

Course Outline

Lesson 1: Principles of Reef Resilience – provides a review of the concepts of social-ecological reef resilience. Resilience is introduced through three dimensions: ecosystem, community and governance, and this lesson explores key principles and attributes of coral reefs that foster resilience within these three dimensions. Learners will gain knowledge of how a holistic approach to resilience through a social-ecological lens can inform and improve management decisions. (45 minutes) 

Lesson 2: Resilience-Based Management – introduces the concepts that underpin a resilience-based management approach.  Case studies will provide examples of RBM applied to coral reefs around various regions around the globe. Learners will discover how RBM is applied in various contexts, including addressing specific threats and challenges, in order to support both coral community health and ecosystem function as a whole. (45 minutes) 

Lesson 3: Adaptive Management – focuses on the application of adaptive management to RBM. The lesson presents the core principles of adaptive management to provide managers an additional perspective on the role of adaptive management in RBM to help managers understand how adaptive management can (and should) be integrated into RBM. Case studies also demonstrate how adaptive management has enabled RBM in multiple locations. (45 minutes) 

Lesson 4: Developing a Resilience Strategy – focuses on the Resilient Reefs Initiative’s process to develop a resilience strategy. The lesson follows the steps of the process, drawing on the concepts that have been introduced in the previous three lessons. Learners will gain a practical understanding of how this process can be adapted and applied to their local context. (90 minutes)