RRAP’s mission is to develop and test novel scientific solutions and make those available to managers to help the Great Barrier Reef and other coral reefs survive in the decades ahead, as global warming is gradually arrested. These solutions will be developed and delivered in partnership with Traditional Owners, recognising their ancestral knowledge and the benefits of seeing the Great Barrier Reef as a cultural landscape beyond its biophysical features.
Emissions reductions alone will not safeguard the Great Barrier Reef and coral reefs around the globe, as the ocean warming to date has already been damaging and further warming is locked in. Under the current most plausible climate path, modelling for the Great Barrier Reef predicts losses of between 30%-50% of coral cover mid-century, to greater than 70% loss by the end of the century.
Additional options are needed to give the Great Barrier Reef the best chance to survive and prosper in a warmer future, and to increase the window for global emissions reduction.
We have made essential scientific and technological breakthroughs leading to a suite of new interventions. We have improved our understanding of how these interventions are perceived and can benefit reef communities. These early R&D breakthroughs have addressed critical knowledge gaps and are paving the way for piloting the deployment of some RRAP interventions on a larger scale.
Through the Pilot Deployments Program, our goal is to further demonstrate and improve the feasibility, efficacy, cost, scalability, safety and acceptability of interventions – a critical step on the path to adoption and scaling in-water and on Reef.
