When Hurricane Iris tore through southern Belize in 2001, it left more than a battered coastline behind. The storm severely damaged the region’s coral reefs, including those around Laughing Bird Caye. For marine biologist Lisa Carne, the destruction became the starting point for a restoration effort that has since helped put more than 100,000 corals back onto reefs across Belize, according to Fragments of Hope, the organisation she founded. The Commonwealth and UNDP have also documented the scale and impact of the project.
A reef left with little hope
Carne first travelled to southern Belize in 1994 after completing a biology degree in California. A year later, she moved to Belize and began working as a volunteer research assistant at the Smithsonian’s Carrie Bow Caye field station. Her work brought her into close contact with the country’s coral reefs and the growing threats they faced, including bleaching and disease. She later worked as a diving instructor, managed Glover’s Reef Marine Reserve and worked as a biologist with Friends of Nature, now the Southern Environmental Association. Then came Hurricane Iris. The Category 4 storm struck Belize in October 2001, causing extensive damage along the southern coast. At Laughing Bird Caye National Park, coral cover fell to less than 6%, according to a Commonwealth case study. But amid the devastation, Carne found something that suggested the reef might not be beyond saving. During a visit to San Pedro in northern Belize, she came across pieces of living elkhorn coral lying among seagrass. The fragments had broken away from larger colonies but were still alive. That observation led to a simple but then unconventional question: could broken coral be replanted on damaged reefs in much the same way trees are replanted on land?
From experiment to restoration
Carne began researching Belize’s Acropora corals, including elkhorn and staghorn coral. In 2006, she received a research grant from the Protected Areas Conservation Trust, allowing her to conduct restoration experiments at Laughing Bird Caye National Park. The first work involved transplanting elkhorn coral fragments to the damaged reef. The approach drew on coral nursery techniques pioneered by coral-restoration specialist Austin Bowden-Kerby. The work expanded in 2009, when Fragments of Hope established six underwater nursery sites near Placencia. Coral fragments were grown in nurseries before being transplanted onto degraded sections of reef. The organisation uses several nursery techniques, including metal A-frames, underwater tables and cement “cookies” that provide stable surfaces for coral fragments. Depending on the species, nursery-grown corals can later be moved to the reef once they have reached a suitable size.
A reef begins to return
What started as a small experiment eventually became a large-scale restoration programme. Fragments of Hope says it now maintains more than 23 in-water coral nurseries and has outplanted more than 100,000 corals at more than 10 locations across Belize. Its restoration sites include Laughing Bird Caye National Park, Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve, South Water Caye Marine Reserve and Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve, as well as sites outside protected areas. At Laughing Bird Caye alone, the organisation says more than 49,000 nursery-grown coral fragments have been successfully outplanted. The site has become one of the project’s most closely documented examples of reef recovery. UNDP reported that coral cover at Laughing Bird Caye rose from less than 6% after Hurricane Iris to more than 50% by 2017. The restored reef has also provided habitat for fish and other marine life, demonstrating why branching Acropora corals are so important to Caribbean reef ecosystems.
More than planting coral
Fragments of Hope’s work has also grown beyond the physical act of putting coral back on the reef. The organisation works with local fishers, tour guides and other community members, training them to participate in coral nursery maintenance, outplanting and monitoring. The broader goal is to build reefs that can continue supporting marine life and coastal communities while facing recurring threats from hurricanes, warming seas, bleaching and disease. For Carne, the journey began with a landscape that appeared almost impossible to restore. More than two decades later, the fragments she chose to see as survivors rather than remnants have become the foundation of one of Belize’s most prominent community-led coral restoration efforts.
