TripleR

Caribbean coral reefs are experiencing ongoing ecological decline driven by climate change, coral disease, coastal development, and overfishing, among others. These stressors have reduced coral cover, diminished herbivore populations, and led to macroalgal dominance, undermining reef resilience and threatening essential ecosystem services such as fisheries, tourism, and coastal protection.
Conventional reef restoration typically involves a single approach: coral outplanting, artificial reef deployment, or grazer enhancement. While these methods show promise in isolated cases, they often fall short in degraded systems. Outplanted corals struggle to survive on reefs dominated by algae, artificial reefs often fail to develop into suitable coral habitat due to algal overgrowth, and grazers like sea urchins face high mortality from predation due to lack of shelter.
The nature management organizations of Saba and St. Eustatius, together with the government of Saba, are implementing the Nature and Environmental Policy Plan (NEPP) for the Caribbean Netherlands 2020–2030. As resilient coral reefs are a core goal of the NEPP, both islands seek to improve the outcomes of restoration efforts. Scientific literature and pilot studies suggest that this can be achieved by combining interventions.
The RAAK-publiek TripleR project will test the effectiveness of the triple restoration approach, in which coral restoration, artificial structures, and grazer enhancement will be simultaneously implemented. Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences and partners will design structures that support coral settlement and provide shelter for grazing sea urchins. Research will focus on coral survival, grazer retention, algal suppression, and site-specific performance. This TripleR approach is expected to reduce algal overgrowth, increase coral survival, and improve grazer retention, restoring ecological balance and initiating a positive feedback loop toward reef recovery. This is urgently needed to halt ongoing degradation and safeguard essential ecosystem services.