Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

-Margaret Mead

The coral reef wildlife trade is a multimillion-dollar luxury industry that serves mainly the US, Europe and China. The collection of coral reef organisms provides income for communities in developing nations in the Pacific Islands. Many of the practices for collection, handling and transport are unsustainable and harmful to both the reef environment and the collected species. The trade’s supply chain is complicated and inefficient. High mortality rates for traded species at each level of collection and transport have led to over harvesting. Prior research has shown that collectors often lack the incentive, equipment and knowledge to improve destructive collection practices. The main objective of this project is twofold: to identify the economic drivers behind the trade and analyze the socioeconomic and ecological benefits of alternative strategies for collection by using case studies.  One of the project’s goals is to construct supply and demand curves for the coral reef wildlife trade to better predict the effects of market changes on both producers and consumers.  Specifically, we will focus on the viability of combining sustainable mariculture and market contract programs as a strategy to help producers in the Coral Triangle meet and buffer against changing demands.  Upon completion of our mariculture feasibility analyses, we will provide recommendations and information to our client, Olazul, a nonprofit organization focused on promoting sustainability within coastal communities. Additionally, we aim to inform policy-makers as to how the coral reef wildlife trade may be altered by industry reform initiatives. This project has the potential to better inform future reform initiatives to protect natural resources while maintaining the collector’s livelihoods for the long term.

Photos: Ariadne Reynolds, 2011

Team Coral Reef completed their year-long Group Project in March 2012! We’d like to extend a big thank you to everyone who was so generous with their time, expertise, and resources as we turn our focus towards our job searches! Stay tuned for more publications!