Cost-benefits analysis of coral and mangrove restoration for risk reduction in the Caribbean

Coastal ecosystems such as mangroves and coral reefs act as natural barriers to waves and storm surges and help mitigate flooding by reducing wave energy and slowing down storm surges.Despite these benefits to coastal communities, coastal ecosystems including mangrove forests and coral reefs continue to be lost and degraded. The loss of mangroves and coral reefs will result in the loss of their ecosystem services, and specific to coastal flooding, will result in an increase in flood damages to communities that are otherwise protected by these ecosystems.For the first time, government agencies (e.g., FEMA) and the world's biggest re-insurers (e.g., Munich Re, Swiss Re) are considering how their funds could be invested in habitat restoration to reduce future risk and build resilience. FEMA has indicated that they can fund restoration with storm recovery funding if it can be shown in their Benefit Cost Analysis that such projects achieve Benefit:Cost ratios (B:C) greater than 1. Our project addresses this issue and investigates the benefits and costs of coral reef and mangrove restoration to guide restoration efforts. We will (1) assess reef and mangrove flood risk reduction benefits in the Caribbean, (2) identify restoration costs, (iii) calculate and map benefits:cost ratios to guide cost effective reef conservation and restoration.

Scholars @ ECU