Posted on May 19, 2025
Lessons learned from Thailand’s largest youth-led marine restoration initiative highlight how to enable future environmental stewardship efforts. Local and hands-on approaches can help drive effective climate solutions. Immersive and educational conservation experiences can empower local communities, foster collective awareness, and build individual accountability to restore degrading ecosystems. This multidimensional land-to-sea approach can serve as a guidebook for other youth to spearhead multi-habitat restoration and conservation efforts worldwide.
Introduction
By 2050, coral reefs as they exist today may completely disappear (Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, 2014). As one of the most important and biologically diverse ecosystems, the extinction of coral reefs would cause major social-ecological challenges. Home to over a quarter of all marine life, coral reefs provide an essential habitat for over 1 million aquatic species1. Additionally, coral reefs hold immense ecological, economic, and cultural value, providing multiple benefits for human communities living in coastal regions2. Not only do coral reefs protect coastlines from erosion, waves, and storms, but they also provide essential opportunities for income, food, and new medicine3,4. Estimates point to over half a billion people depending upon healthy coral reefs to sustain their livelihoods5.
Coral reef ecosystems are highly interconnected and depend upon the health of multiple habitats and species5,6,7. Hence, a holistic approach to coral reef restoration is needed rather than a focus on single habitat recovery8. Indeed, to effectively restore and protect coastal regions from multiple human pressures, recommendations are that management actions must be focused on three major interlinked habitats: coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrasses.
In coastal regions like Thailand, coral reef ecosystems are especially integral to supporting the country’s blue economy and cultural value9. However, increased climate and anthropogenic pressures, such as rapid coastal development, destructive fishery practices, and multiple bleaching events, have led to alarming coral mortality rates10. In Thailand, the work of grassroots organizations like ‘Yad Fon’ (meaning ‘raindrop’), founded in 1985 to support mangrove restoration, has continually showcased the power of local communities to revitalize productive wetland ecosystems11. The latter organization contributes to climate-resilient communities, empowering environmental stewardship, building ecological literacy, and promoting action to support coastal habitats. Scaling efforts of local communities are key to the recovery of ecosystem health, especially in the face of the climate crisis. This background, hence, raises the question: How might youth-led restoration initiatives effectively encourage stewardship and sustain public care for corals and the wider tropical coastal seascape?
Here, we offer insights into how Thailand’s largest youth-led marine conservation initiative—‘Care for Coral’—intends to bridge land and seascape recovery by empowering young environmental stewards. While Care for Coral focuses predominantly on coral reef restoration, its immersive restoration and educational experiences have inspired youth to become active stewards across various habitats and species12. It has further promoted lifelong ocean literacy, together with skills and knowledge transfer, by providing meaningful opportunities for local communities to engage in direct restoration experiences. Such an approach has facilitated direct coral reef rehabilitation while building sound foundations for youth to carry their newfound ecological literacy to protect natural resources in the long term. It can, therefore, serve as a guiding example for other youth to spearhead multi-habitat environmental conservation and restoration efforts around the globe (Fig. 1).
