Philippines
Duration
2 years
Lead institutions
Universiteit Hasselt
Visayas State University
Academic partners
Norberto Jr. Milla
Project status
Ongoing
Programme
SI
Total budget
69,990.80
Summary
Coral reefs are rapidly degrading due to human activity and climate change. This threatens coastal livelihoods, especially in the Philippines, home to the world’s richest reef biodiversity. Monitoring coral reef biodiversity trends is crucial for effective conservation, but it requires expertise in spatiotemporal biodiversity assessment and advanced ecological statistics, which many Filipino institutions lack. Success also relies on local community involvement in data collection and goal-setting, enhancing public ownership.
In REEFDREAM, Visayas State University, supported by Hasselt University, builds interdisciplinary research capacity in ecological statistics. Collaborating with fishing communities, REEFDREAM focuses on expert- and community-based data collection in local coral reefs, coral reef metacommunity model development, and workshops to train researchers and stakeholders on ecological analysis, which will be adapted for implementation in an approved MS program in Statistics.
