Action Plans / Action Plan 5
Collect coral eggs and sperm when corals spawn and raise baby corals, so restored reefs grow from many different parents, not copies of just a few.
Level 5 of 10 · −15 m
Your progressThe three lowest-effort first moves for this Action Plan. Cost levels are qualitative estimates, not quotes.
Why it matters
dela Cruz and Harrison showed cultured larvae can boost recruitment on degraded NW Philippine reefs (dela Cruz and Harrison 2017, larval enhancement in NW Philippines; dela Cruz and Harrison 2020, Bolinao–Anda larval settlement).
What it takes
Why it matters
UP MSI built larval methods in Bolinao, northern Luzon (UP MSI coral cryobank announcement), and in 2024 partners including UP MSI and WPU released cultured larvae at Port Barton, Palawan (Palawan News, 6 June 2024 — Port Barton coral larvae release (ACIAR, San Vicente LGU, UP MSI, SCU, WPU)).
What it takes
Why it matters
Explaining that success is counted in surviving colonies over years builds realistic public expectations.
What it takes
Larval restoration is one of the clearest Philippine research strengths, from Bolinao in northern Luzon to a 2024 release in Palawan. The roadmap is about learning from that record and helping Filipino scientists, not starting a rival program.
From the easiest work to the most advanced. In planning, and not legal advice.
Stage 1: Beginner
Larval restoration grows new corals from spawn, and the Philippines is a research leader. Read dela Cruz and Harrison on adding cultured larvae to degraded reefs in the northwestern Philippines (dela Cruz and Harrison 2017, larval enhancement in NW Philippines; dela Cruz and Harrison 2020, Bolinao–Anda larval settlement). Follow UP MSI’s coral cryobank work at Bolinao (UP MSI coral cryobank announcement) and MERF’s larval project (MERF / ACIAR coral larval restoration project). Note that the work is spreading beyond Bolinao: in May–June 2024, ACIAR, the San Vicente LGU, UP MSI, Southern Cross University and WPU cultured coral larvae and released them at Port Barton (Palawan News, 6 June 2024 — Port Barton coral larvae release (ACIAR, San Vicente LGU, UP MSI, SCU, WPU)). Collect nothing; FAO 233 covers larvae and broodstock (FAO 233 (2010), Aquatic Wildlife Conservation). Visitor material can show how corals spawn, why timing depends on moon and water temperature, and why newly settled corals are so vulnerable in their first year.
Ready for the next step when: The Philippine larval literature and the Port Barton precedent are summarized for partners and visitors.
Stage 2: Intermediate
Support education around partner-led work. Explain to visitors and barangays that success is counted in settlers and surviving colonies over years, not one spawning night. If invited, help Filipino scientists map local spawning seasons with community consent. ACIAR’s 2025–2027 Southeast Asia larval network names University of the Philippines as a partner (ACIAR project FIS/2024/120, SE Asia coral larval restoration network), which may be the right frame for links to new regions. New regional stations, such as those planned by WPU in El Nido (Palawan News, 13 Oct 2025 — WPU, DENR-MIMAROPA and PSU MOA for El Nido research stations), could make local monitoring more practical. Barangay sessions can explain why boats, anchors and runoff matter on the nights and weeks after spawning.
Ready for the next step when: Filipino scientists have said whether they want support at a new site, and spawning-season work has community consent.
Stage 3: Advanced
If UP MSI, WPU or another Filipino laboratory proposes larval work for a new region, it would be led by them under BFAR authority, with genetic and biosecurity questions answered before larvae move between regions. The center could fund boats, settlement surveys and long-term monitoring, and host non-formal learning. Any coral or in-water step is led by a Filipino institution that holds the BFAR permits, under a written MOA. The center funds and supports; coral is never sold; and education stays non-formal. Progress is measured over multiple years, alongside the protection and water-quality work that lets new recruits survive.
Ready for the next step when: Genetics, biosecurity and BFAR authority are settled by the Filipino lead before any larvae move.
Asexual gardening multiplies existing genotypes. Sexual methods (SECORE, Harrison’s Coral IVF, AIMS seeding devices, Marhaver’s larval work) are how programs avoid genetic bottlenecks and can scale in area.
Feeds Assisted Evolution (breeding starts with larvae) and Science (recruitment metrics). Is fed by Preservation (adult spawners must still exist), Water Quality (larvae are sensitive to sediment), and Creating New Reefs (they need something to settle on).
Filter this Action Plan’s papers by the action they help you take — Preserve, Conserve, Restore, Protect or Regenerate.
Loading research for this Action Plan…
Sexual larval restoration is already a Philippine research strength, especially in the Bolinao–Anda region, and any new effort elsewhere in the country should learn from that work rather than copy it uninvited.
In planning, and not legal advice. This is a working educational plan for a center that is not yet operating or permitted. Confirm every permit with Philippine counsel, BFAR, DENR (including the Biodiversity Management Bureau and the Protected Area Management Board of any protected area), DENR-EMB, the relevant LGU and, in Palawan, the PCSD, before any field work.
Who can lead in-water coral work. Gathering, possessing, selling or exporting corals is generally unlawful in the Philippines, except for scientific or research purposes under a special permit from the Department of Agriculture / BFAR (Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998, Sec. 91 (RA 8550); BFAR FAO 202, s. 2000, Ban on Coral Exploitation and Exportation). Collection and conservation breeding of aquatic wildlife, including coral, is also regulated under FAO 233, issued pursuant to the Wildlife Act, and typically requires a Gratuitous Permit or related BFAR authority (FAO 233 (2010), Aquatic Wildlife Conservation; FAO 233 text (FAOLEX); Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act (RA 9147)). The Constitution reserves exploration, development and utilization of natural resources to Filipino citizens or corporations at least 60% Filipino-owned, and the 13th Regular Foreign Investment Negative List reserves utilization of marine resources in archipelagic waters, the territorial sea and the EEZ to Philippine nationals (1987 Constitution, Art. XII, Sec. 2; 13th Regular Foreign Investment Negative List (EO 113, s. 2026)). For those reasons, any in-water coral work contemplated here would be led by Filipino scientific and community partners, not by a foreign principal acting alone.
The permit chain (to be confirmed site by site, anywhere in the Philippines) generally includes: review by the Protected Area Management Board where a site lies inside a protected area under the Expanded NIPAS Act (Expanded NIPAS Act of 2018 (RA 11038)); an Environmental Compliance Certificate or Certificate of Non-Coverage from DENR-EMB under the EIS System (PD 1586 / Philippine EIS System (DENR-EMB ECC/CNC)); BFAR authority for any coral handling; and local government permits. Municipal fisherfolk have preferential rights in municipal waters under the Fisheries Code. Some regions add their own layer. In Palawan, for example, that means Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) zoning/ECAN certification and SEP clearance under RA 7611 (Strategic Environmental Plan for Palawan Act (RA 7611)); and, at El Nido, review by the Protected Area Management Board of the El Nido–Taytay Managed Resource Protected Area (Presidential Proclamation No. 32, s. 1998 (ENTMRPA)).
Existing work across the country. Filipino institutions already lead reef science and restoration nationwide: the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute and the Marine Environment and Resources Foundation in Bolinao and beyond (UP MSI coral cryobank announcement; MERF / ACIAR coral larval restoration project); Silliman University’s Institute of Environmental and Marine Sciences in the Visayas and Mindanao (Silliman University, 10 Dec 2025 — SU-IEMS coral reef restoration research; Silliman University, 29 Jun 2026 — SU-IEMS fish visual census training, Davao Oriental); UP Visayas (UP Visayas CFOS-IMFO, coral reef assessment training in Antique); Mindanao State University at Naawan (MSU at Naawan, Coral Reef Management (CoReM) Hub); Davao Oriental State University in Pujada Bay (DORSU, 23 Jul 2025 — Pujada Bay artificial reef results); the Coastal Conservation and Education Foundation (CCEF, Aug 2024 — 3D-printed clay reef workshop, Maria, Siquijor); and local programs such as the El Nido Foundation in Palawan (El Nido Foundation, Coral Reef Restoration and Education Program). A planned center should complement that work, not overwrite it. A public record of past work is not a partnership agreement, and current BFAR permit numbers were not independently verified for this page.
A beginner-to-expert arc: start with why the work matters, then methods and sources, then local application with Filipino partners.
Learn that corals also reproduce sexually, releasing spawn that becomes larvae, and that this adds genetic diversity nurseries may lack (SECORE explainers; Randall and others in the library).
Read dela Cruz and Harrison (2017, 2020) on adding cultured larvae to degraded northwestern Philippine reefs, including settlement, three-year survival and cost per colony.
Work only through Filipino laboratories that already have this capacity (UP MSI / MERF), under BFAR rules, and measure success over years.
These are other organisations’ resources and public programs. Listing them is not a partnership claim.
Answers are limited to points we can cite from the research library or from official and peer-reviewed sources. Questions we cannot answer that way are left out.
It means rearing larvae from spawned eggs and sperm and placing them, or settlement units, onto a reef so they can attach and grow. Chamberland, dela Cruz and Harrison, SECORE and others document this sexual pathway, which can add genetic diversity that clonal gardening may lack. dela Cruz and Harrison 2017, larval enhancement in NW Philippines; SECORE Foundation, implementation
In the northwestern Philippines, dela Cruz and Harrison (2017) introduced about 400,000 Acropora tenuis larvae into mesh-enclosed plots; after three years a mean of 2.3 colonies per square metre survived, grew and spawned, while controls had no visible new A. tenuis. A 2020 trial with Acropora loripes recorded high settlement in enhanced plots, 47 colonies still alive after 35 months, and an estimated cost of USD 35.20 per colony. dela Cruz and Harrison 2017, larval enhancement in NW Philippines; dela Cruz and Harrison 2020, Bolinao–Anda larval settlement
Both. Gardening uses asexual fragments. Spawning and larval work use sexual reproduction. Randall and others argue that sexual production is important for restoration in a warming ocean because it can increase genetic diversity. SECORE Foundation, implementation
