New Opportunities for Reducing Coastal Risk with Natural Defenses
Presented by: Mike Beck of the University of California at Santa Cruz
Originally aired on 17 September, 2019.
This webinar provides an overview of new research on how natural defenses can reduce coastal risk. Key new findings include: 1) the global costs of storms would double if the top 1 m of coral reefs is lost, 2) coral reefs provide $1.8 billion in annual flood protection benefits to the US alone, and 3) globally, if mangroves are lost, 39% more people would be affected by floods and property damage would increase by $82 billion. This webinar also shows which countries (and hotspots in countries) have the most to gain in flood protection from reef conservation. We wrap up by describing our work with the insurance industry and FEMA to show how valuation of risk reduction benefits can be used to finance reef and wetland conservation and restoration at scale.
Co-sponsors: OCTO (OpenChannels, The Skimmer, MPA News) and the EBM Tools Network (co-coordinated by OCTO and NatureServe)
Click here to download a copy of this webinar from our Vimeo page