Cairns, Port Douglas
Location
Local organisations are working to protect and rehabilitate areas of the Great Barrier Reef, but these activities need to be coordinated and collaborative for greater impact.
The Reef Hub is an open collaborative network that is connecting, growing, and championing the efforts of tourism operators, Traditional Owners, community groups, and other organisations in the Cairns-Port Douglas region that are supporting the resilience of the Great Barrier Reef.
Through building a skilled network, facilitating collaborative reef science and championing local voices, the Reef Hub aims to increase the positive impact of local reef restoration efforts.
Key points
Cairns Port Douglas Reef Hub
Gallery
Research leads
Local challenges for building reef resilience
A range of pressures increasingly threaten the health of the Great Barrier Reef, and hands-on efforts are urgently needed to build reef resilience. These stewardship activities are needed across regional to local scales, and many local organisations are already acting to protect and rehabilitate the reef.
These activities need to be coordinated and collaborative to be effective. Local organisations need a way to share ideas, gain knowledge and skills, and work together to improve reef health in a scalable way. The Cairns-Port Douglas Reef Hub was created to provide these connections.
A network for sharing, learning, and championing local reef restoration efforts
The Cairns-Port Douglas Reef Hub (Reef Hub) is an open collaborative network that is connecting, growing, and championing the efforts of tourism operators, Traditional Owners, community groups, and other organisations in the region that are supporting the resilience of the Great Barrier Reef.
The Reef Hub aims to coordinate activities and pilot programs, serving as a platform for communication and collaboration. It supports activities, facilitates knowledge sharing, and builds capacity through training and access to appropriate tools.
Using an action learning approach, the Reef Hub collaborates closely with partners and adjusts its strategies to meet evolving project needs. By connecting and supporting local organisations, the Reef Hub strives for a better future for coral reefs.
The Reef Hub has coordinated several projects to date:
Spawning School – a practical learning program run in partnership with Reef Recruits that trained local First Nations Land and Sea Rangers how to raise coral larvae for reef restoration.
Recruitment Tile Study – run with a collective of local organisations, investigating relative coral recruitment within and across five reefs following mass spawning.
Collaborative Monitoring Project – a pilot project run with RRAP, Traditional Owners, community partners, and tourism operators to test collaborative models for deploying and monitoring the best coral seeding systems for widespread use on the Great Barrier Reef.
Capacity building workshops – practical training that assists reef recovery and monitoring, based on practitioner needs.
Further funding needed to expand initiatives
Further funding is needed to expand the Reef Hub's programs and ensure their long-term impact. This support will enable the continuation and growth of initiatives that enhance reef resilience across the region, facilitating collaboration among local organisations, Traditional Owners, government bodies, researchers, and community stakeholders.
Project details
The Cairns-Port Douglas Reef Hub is hosted by TropWATER and coordinated by Dr Katie Chartrand and Dr Abbi Scott. The Reef Hub is funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and enabled by the partnership’s Community Reef Protection and Traditional Owner Reef Protection components, and the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program with a network of local partners.
