Belize Reef Restoration Effort: Lisa Carne revives storm-hit corals; project outplants 100,000 fragments

When Hurricane Iris tore through southern Belize in 2001, it left more than a battered coastline behind. The storm severely damaged the region’s coral reefs, including those around Laughing Bird Caye. For marine biologist Lisa Carne, the destruction became the starting point for a restoration effort that has since helped put more than 100,000 corals back onto reefs across Belize, according to Fragments of Hope, the organisation she founded. The Commonwealth and UNDP have also documented the scale and impact of the project.A reef left with little hopeCarne first travelled to southern Belize in 1994 after completing a biology degree in California. A year later, she moved to Belize and began working as a volunteer research assistant at the Smithsonian’s Carrie Bow Caye field station.Her work brought her into close contact with the country’s coral reefs and the growing threats they faced, including bleaching and disease. She later worked as a diving instructor, managed Glover’s Reef Marine Reserve and worked as a biologist with Friends of Nature, now the Southern Environmental Association. Then came Hurricane Iris.The Category 4 storm struck Belize in October 2001, causing extensive da...