Fig 1.
Spatial distribution of coral reef restoration initiatives across the Western Indian Ocean (WIO).
Circles indicate the locations of each shared restoration point. Colors of each circle indicate the different projects; corresponding project names and GPS coordinates and countries are provided in S1 and S2 Tables. Countries in colors (green and orange) mark the full stretch of the WIO region, while countries in green indicate the 8 of 11 WIO countries with active coral restoration projects. Base map data were obtained from Natural Earth and OpenStreetMap and created using QGIS. All map data is publicly available and licensed for reuse under terms compatible with Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license; no third-party or proprietary map data was used.
Fig 2.
Distribution of coral reef restoration approaches reported by surveyed initiatives in the Western Indian Ocean.
Values indicate the proportion of initiatives that apply each approach; multiple approaches could be reported by a single project (n = 22 projects).
Fig 3.
Distribution of coral reef restoration techniques reported across surveyed initiatives in the Western Indian Ocean.
Percentages represent the proportion of survey respondents selecting each objective (n = 22 responses; multiple responses permitted).
Fig 4.
Percentage occurrence of methods used for attaching coral fragments across restoration sites in the WIO region, showing the relative frequency of each technique (n = 22 responses; multiple techniques per project possible).
Fig 5.
Coral genera used in restoration projects across the Western Indian Ocean (WIO), highlighting the predominance of Acropora and the range of genera transplanted.
Fig 6.
(a) Size of coral reef restoration sites in the WIO region.
(b) Number of years since the inception of restoration activities at a site (n = 22 projects).
Table 1.
Reported outcomes and notable achievements of coral reef restoration projects across the WIO, categorized with selected respondent quotes.
Table 2.
Thematic categories of challenges reported by coral reef restoration initiatives in the Western Indian Ocean. Numbers and percentages represent the frequency of reports across surveyed initiatives (n = 49 total reports). Illustrative examples summarize the types of challenges described by practitioners.
Fig 7.
Thematic grouping of challenges reported by coral reef restoration initiatives in the Western Indian Ocean.
Percentages represent the relative frequency of challenge themes reported by respondents across all initiatives (n = 49 total reports).