Amara OkaforMahé, SeychellesLive

CoralVault Seed Banking

A living biobank safeguarding heat-tolerant coral genotypes and scaling assisted reef recovery across the Indian Ocean.

Health & BiotechnologyReef RecoveryBiobanking

About this project

CoralVault Seed Banking is a scientifically grounded, high-impact restoration project that leverages cryopreservation and land-based nurseries to scale assisted reef recovery while tracking genetic provenance. The proposal shows strong methodological foundations and clear additionality, but gaps in open-data commitments, long-term monitoring protocols, and community benefit/ governance details prevent a higher integrity score.

AI summary by the Ozeaon Climate Intelligence System

Why this integrity score?

The OCIS Integrity Report below explains the reasoning behind the headline score — dimension by dimension — and is readable in full here.

Score Reasoning — Dimensions

The headline score is a weighted sum of six integrity dimensions assessed by the Ozeaon Climate Intelligence System.

Scientific Rigor20% weight
78
Approach (cryopreservation + selective outplanting) aligns with peer-reviewed methods for building heat-tolerant stocks, though explicit references to protocols and survival/fitness trial results are limited.
Open Science15% weight
68
Proposal states end-to-end genetic provenance tracking but does not provide a clear plan or platform for public data sharing, versioned protocols, or publication commitments.
Measurability (dMRV)20% weight
72
Genetic and provenance data enable traceability, and outplanting lends itself to monitoring, but the proposal lacks detailed indicator definitions, sampling protocols, and verification workflow.
Additionality & Impact15% weight
75
Project delivers tangible ecological additionality by banking heat-tolerant genotypes and restoring degraded reefs, though quantified ecosystem service or carbon/climate co-benefit estimates are not provided.
Transparency & Governance15% weight
66
There is clarity around the technical objective but limited description of governance, funding flows, legal/permits, or independent oversight structures.
Community & Equity15% weight
68
Proposal implies regional scale-up across the Indian Ocean but gives few specifics on local partner roles, benefit sharing, consent, or livelihood safeguards.

Strengths

Uses established and emerging science (cryopreservation + selective outplanting) to preserve and deploy heat-tolerant coral genotypes.
End-to-end genetic provenance tracking is built into the concept, improving traceability and long-term stewardship of genotypes.
Combined ex situ (biobank and land-based nurseries) and in situ (outplanting) approach increases chances of survival and scalable deployment across degraded reefs.

Risks & Gaps

Lack of published, versioned protocols and open datasets reduces reproducibility and independent verification potential.
No detailed dMRV plan: missing indicator definitions, baseline/control design, sampling cadence, and verification procedures for survival and ecological outcomes.
Governance and benefit-sharing details are sparse—unclear who holds rights over genotypes, how local communities benefit, and how permits/compliance will be managed.

dMRV Recommendation

Tier

Tier 2 2 2 2 mdash; Operational dMRV

Cadence

Immediate post-outplant checks at 1 week and 1 month; intensive monitoring at 6 and 12 months; annual monitoring thereafter for at least 5 years; environmental sensors continuous; public reporting annually (with quarterly operational logs).

Recommended

Yes

A Tier 2 operational dMRV balances feasibility and rigor: genetics + cryobank records establish provenance, in-situ and remote monitoring quantify biological outcomes, environmental sensors provide covariate data, and scheduled audits enable independent verification. This cadence captures short-term survivorship and medium-term ecological integration while remaining operationally realistic for scaling across the Indian Ocean.

Genetic provenance via targeted sequencing / barcoding and cryobank chain-of-custody ledger (sample IDs, timestamps, geo-refs).In-situ biological monitoring: standardized photo-quadrats, belt transects, and coral health scoring at fixed sampling points.Remote sensing and drone photogrammetry for reef-scale benthic cover and rugosity change detection.Environmental sensors: continuous temperature loggers and water quality spot sampling.

About this project

Generating OCIS summary & integrity report…