REEFolution is a Kenya- and Netherlands-based NGO founded in 2016 to restore and protect coral reefs together with local communities in Southern Kenya. Backed by science, they have established mainland Africa’s largest coral restoration project. To respond to accelerating climate pressures, their newest program focuses on climate adaptation, preparing corals for a warming ocean.
With support from the Care Collective Fund, they are also testing reef structure designs that will later be built from local waste streams, so that reefs can be restored at scale.
Alfred Rono is REEFolution’s Senior Project Manager based in Shimoni, Kenya. He oversees their daily field operations and leads the team of community divers, the REEF Rangers. Together with their field team, he serves as REEFolution’s primary bridge to local coastal communities, grassroots organizations, and key regional authorities, including the Kenya Wildlife Service and the Kenya Fisheries Service, among others.
Why did you start this project?
Alfred Rono: We started in 2016, in response to a rapid decline of corals along the Kenyan coast, driven by a combination of human-caused pressures. Examples are destructive fishing methods, pollution, and the increasingly warming oceans. With 90% of the nearby community being fisherfolk, it’s safe to say that local communities here have built their lives around the ocean for generations, fishing for food and income while welcoming visitors drawn by the underwater life. As coral reefs in the region degraded, coastal livelihoods were put at risk too. We wanted to prove that restoration together with the coastal communities effectively brings these coral reefs back, while promoting local stewardship.
What exactly do you do on the ground, and what does a typical working day look like for you?
Alfred Rono: A typical working day for us starts with a morning brief. We always begin with a quick wellbeing check-in before diving into what everyone has scheduled for the day, whether that’s underwater work or desk-based work. We map out all our tasks on a planning board, listing the activities, locations for diving or snorkeling, and team assignments. Once we’re aligned, everyone gets to work. The REEF Rangers head out to dive according to plan while the rest of the team tackles their daily priorities. My primary role throughout the day is to ensure tasks are completed on track and to support the team wherever needed.
What has been your biggest challenge so far, and what have you learned from it?
Alfred Rono: The hardest lesson came in 2024, when one of the worst global bleaching events on record wiped out an estimated 70% of corals in our project region. It made painfully clear that restoration alone is no longer enough to protect coral reefs. Even when carefully nurtured, outplanted corals died alongside wild ones as a result of the ocean water becoming too hot.
That pushed us to think differently, on two fronts. First, we need coral restoration to be effective: we need corals that can actually withstand a warming ocean. For this reason, we're building a strong climate adaptation program to develop heat-tolerant East African corals. This is essential for ensuring long-term effectiveness. Secondly, and this is where the Care Collective Fund's support comes in, we aim to restore reefs at scale. That is why together we are exploring the use of wastestreams such as coconut shells, sargassum seaweed and glass to replace concrete. These cost-efficient alternatives come with the benefit that more materials are re-used and directly purchased from the community. Also, these materials come with a lower footprint and are less carbon-intensive.
What does the support from the Care Collective Fund mean for your project?
Alfred Rono: The Care Collective Fund is supporting the step of proving that restoration can be done at scale through verifying the designs. With GOT BAG’s support, we're building 128 concrete prototypes and we are putting them at two sites in Shimoni. Next, we monitor whether corals attach, fish come back and structures hold up. The funding also covers the cameras and 3D modelling we use to document that, and the community meetings where we share the results with the people whose livelihoods depend on these reefs. Once we know the shapes work, that's what lets us move to building the real thing out of recycled materials.
What do you hope to achieve over the next 12 months?
Alfred Rono: Our key focus for the coming 12 months is proving the effectiveness and functionality of ReefXycle blocks and setting up a local production hub. This will enable the community to manufacture the blocks and attract interest from new partners. Specifically for this year, our goal is to manufacture around 3,000 ReefXycle blocks using locally sourced recycled materials, while training our REEF Rangers on the assembly, deployment, and coral attachment techniques.
At the same time, through the Mkwiro Restoration Program, we’ll keep expanding our coral nurseries with a target to outplant around 10,000 fragments on the reef blocks. We’ll also be deepening our partnerships with research institutions and local communities to monitor the ecological impact and refine our adaptive restoration methods.
By the end of the year, we want to have proven that waste streams provide a solid basis for producing effective, cost-efficient artificial reefs which thrive in Kenyan waters. If successful, this is a game changer for coral reef restoration practitioners that could be replicated around the world.
