Members in Action: Phanor Montoya, Coral Reef Restoration Program Manager, CERP

Dr. Phanor Hernando Montoya Maya, CERP, is the Coral Reef Restoration Program Manager for the Coral Restoration Foundation and serves on the Executive Board of Corales de Paz. Phanor is pictured micro-fragmenting a brain coral. 

How long have you been a member of SER? What’s your best experience thus far?

I have been a member of SER since 2018. It has been a very enriching experience from which I have learned a lot about the ecological restoration of other ecosystems besides coral reefs. I have been able to transfer the knowledge and experiences learned through SER to my practice and, of course, include them in the training I provide. 

What motivated you to become a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP)?

Coral reef restoration is still a growing discipline, and the number of restoration practitioners is increasing worldwide. I wanted to differentiate myself by certifying my knowledge and experience, and CERP was the most respected certification I could find. 

Tell us more about your current occupation?

Between 2016 and 2022, I was the director and founding member of Corales de Paz, a conservation non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Colombia that applies participatory approaches (e.g. citizen science) to coral reef monitoring and restoration. Now, I serve as a member of the Executive Board and my current focus is steering the organization toward a sound future by ensuring that it is fulfilling its mission of rebuilding resilient coral reefs for and with people in the most effective and impactful way. I am also very excited to share with you that beginning July 2022, I am the new Coral Reef Restoration Program Manager for the Coral Restoration Foundation, the largest and oldest coral restoration organization. My role will be to ensure the organization continues to grow and outplant critically endangered coral species to recover the live coral cover in the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary. 

Diving over an outplanting site in Florida (USA). 

What projects are you working on right now?

Recently, myself and members of Corales de Paz’s scientific team are working with the Government of Colombia on a project to complete numerous local projects that focus on increasing the scale of restoration efforts in 13 coral reef areas in Colombia. This project will support the work that many environmental authorities (Provincial and national), NGOs, and universities have been doing for the past 10 years to restore coral reefs in the country. It includes capacity building for large-scale coral gardening, habitat restoration, impact control improvements, and community enhancement. Through this project we will certify 100 community members as coral gardeners, build a stock of one million coral fragments of over 25 hard coral species, strengthen the management of marine protected areas, and initiate the protection of 200 hectares of coral reefs from the Caribbean and Pacific coasts of Colombia. With over $1.6 million dollars of public and private funding, this is the largest, most comprehensive effort to accelerate the recovery of coral reefs in the country. What I love the most about this project is that it is built upon previous work that will enhance ongoing projects, involve key stakeholders, and complement passive restoration strategies. 

One of the long-term projects I am most passionate about is my work in citizen science, research, and professional training for coral reef restoration. I have been promoting science-based coral reef restoration projects that are participative, and actively involve coral reef users to increase the stewardship and sustainability of coral reef conservation. As a founding member of the Coral Restoration Consortium, I have been involved in advancing the science of coral reef restoration, scaling up efforts worldwide, and including resilience and climate change adaptation into projects. My work has played an important role in building and maintaining partnerships and networks among international NGOs, universities, and research institutions, which have resulted in the Restoration Network of the Eastern Tropical Pacific (RedPTO) and the Coral Reef Latin American Network (Corales Latinos). I have also developed the first professional training program on large-scale coral reef restoration with workshops held in Seychelles, the Maldives, and Colombia in collaboration with local and international partners. Lastly, I pioneered Colombia´s first citizen science coral reef monitoring and restoration programs that include the digitalization of Colombia´s coral reef monitoring surveys by applying structure-from-motion techniques (e.g. benthic photomosaic imagery) and developing new tools to improve image capture. 

Two other exciting and collaborative projects I am working on right now are in Grenada and Colombia. The first includes setting up coral propagation facilities to assist with a green-gray infrastructure project to recover a barrier reef and stop beach erosion at a local bay. The second project includes piloting the very first land-based nursery in Colombia to assist with asexual and sexual coral propagation. These two projects are a great opportunity to contribute to coral reef restoration by applying different but complementary approaches. 

Phanor outplanting branching corals. 

 What do you find most rewarding about working for your organization?

The thing I love the most about working with Corales de Paz is that I get to create the projects I want to work on, and then I get to see those projects help support the work of others. Corales de Paz has developed international training programs to increase local capacity for grassroots coral reef restoration projects and we have also implemented mixed funding strategies that help support restoration efforts from resource-limited organizations. What do I find most rewarding about my job? Learning that my work has sparked new grassroots organizations and initiatives that build upon lessons learned by our trained coral reef restoration practitioners. 

What has been your favorite moment of your career so far?

In 2016, I returned to my homeland of Colombia to apply the knowledge and expertise in coral reef conservation and restoration acquired from my post-graduate studies and postdoc positions. My very first effort resulted in Colombia´s largest coral reef restoration project in the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve. This was a multi-partner collaboration that resulted in a 41% increase in live hard coral cover at circa 1 hectare of intervened reefs, with the addition of over 8000 nursery-grown colonies in San Andrés and Providencia Islands in just two years of operation. This experience was the precursor of a government-funded project that will help restoration practitioners galvanize their efforts into one single and simultaneous effort to restore 200 hectares of reefs in both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts of Colombia by sexual and asexual propagation of more than 20 hard coral species. This will mark the first time that the government has committed to coral reef conservation and restoration, and the very first-time local restoration practitioners have received such big support from the government. I believe this project will be a magnificent opportunity to work together for a common goal. 

How does your work support the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration?

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is a global effort to stop, reduce or reverse the degradation of our planet's ecosystem. I am helping the cause by building capacity to do ecological restoration of coral reefs and to foster collaboration to improve the effectiveness of our actions.

Phanor training a new Reef Repair Diver. 

Why would you encourage others, particularly young people, to get involved in this field?

Imagine you have a small farm, and you and your family get food from this farm, but one day a storm or a pest comes and kills most of your stock. You are now faced with protecting what is left, restoring, or a mix of both. Which option will you choose to continue harvesting the goods from your farm? Many threatened ecosystems are “small farms” for the more than 7 billion people on this planet who depend on them for food, jobs, well-being, recreation, and many more of the ecosystem services they provide us. Although we have tried to reduce the degradation of wetlands, coral reefs, tropical rainforests, and many of the other ecosystems with the designation of protected areas, there is a need to complement this strategy with more active efforts if we are to curb increasing biodiversity and habitat loss. Ecological restoration provides the science, experiences, and tools to assist and accelerate natural ecosystem recovery. We are running out of time to intervene, but we have many opportunities to do so if we are up for the challenge.

What was your childhood dream job?

I always wanted to work in the field with people and for people. I dreamed of a job where I could leave a legacy and not just make a living.  And here I am, running an organization with a multidisciplinary team that is helping increase the resilience of coral reefs with reef users for reef users. 

What’s something about you (a fun fact) that not many people know?

I am a travel junky! I love to visit new places, dive in new reefs, learn how other people interact with coral reefs, and get a bigger picture of what life is all about. While traveling I make a point to try any local artisanal beer!

Learn more about Phanor’s work on coral reef restoration, and what concrete actions can be taken to stop the degradation of coral reefs by watching his talk at TEDxOceanmarProject (available in Spanish).