Rehabilitation of Coastal Habitat: A Vital Management Tool for Protecting Biodiversity and Livelihood against Climatic and Non-Climatic Factors

Abstract

Coral reefs and seagrasses are important for biodiversity and liveli­hood but they are fast degrading owing to climatic and non-climatic factors. The impacts of climate change since 1998 and the effects of non-climatic factors, mainly destructive fishing practices, mining, pollution, and coastal development, have altered the community structure and health of corals and seagrasses. Low-tech and low-cost transplantation techniques have been successfully standard­ized and implemented in the Gulf of Mannar, southeast India. A coral rehabilita­tion technique, perfected in 2002, comprising selection of site, identification of suitable native species, precision in fragmentation, choosing fragment size, fix­ing positions, and effective monitoring protocols, resulted in good growth and a survival of 80.1%. The average annual growth was 13.5 cm in fast-growing branching corals and 1.8 cm in massive corals. There was also considerable in­crease in coral cover, recruit density, and population size of fish and associated macrofauna. Likewise, a rehabilitation program for seagrass was started in 2008. Seagrass shoots in the rehabilitated areas showed a good survival rate of 85.04% with increased biodiversity. Rehabilitation of degraded coral and seagrass areas is a viable management practice for the restoration of the ecosys­tem services like fishery, coastal protection, and tourism as well as enhancing ecosystem resilience.