Great Barrier Reef Legacy is an independent not-for-profit organisation based in Port Douglas Australia.

With over 35 years of expedition, tourism, multimedia and research experience on the Great Barrier Reef, our team has extensive knowledge of the Reef, and is composed of dedicated and skilled volunteers with an unwavering commitment to protecting our reefs. Our mission is to be a global leader in marine expeditions, delivering innovative science, education and public engagement to accelerate actions vital to the future survival of coral reefs. The Forever Reef project was created in consultation with Traditional Owners, industry and corporate partners, research collaborators, government organisations and tourism operators. It is the embodiment of a shared vision of an exceptional group of individuals and organisations with a single purpose: to address the urgent need to secure the long-term survival of coral reefs world-wide.

The Forever Reef Project is a critical component of a whole-ecosystem survival strategy using proven technology and tapping into global networks to address the immediate need to safeguard the biodiversity of corals.

Whilst we are the first to admit that The Forever Reef Project is not THE single solution to protect the Great Barrier Reef, we are certain of its purpose and that it complements existing practical efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and reduce regional pressures on coral reefs from land-based and water-based activities. It provides a resource for existing global research and restoration efforts, including activities to rehabilitate habitats and help corals adapt to the impacts of a changing climate.

Great Barrier Reef Legacy is part of an international group of institutions fighting to address a global coral crisis. These include the Smithsonian's National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration of the USA, Association of Zoos and Aquariums-Florida Reef Tract Rescue Project, Mote Marine Laboratory, and the Centre Scientifique de Monaco.

The Project also harnesses the world's public and private aquariums to provide additional backups of the living fragments, thus creating the largest collaborative preservation network of live corals, safeguarding these species forever.

The techniques and equipment to carry out this project are well established. Coral can, in theory, live forever, provided that it is given the ideal resources and conditions to do so. We already have the facility to keep these coral alive and the aquarium trade has perfected the necessary skills of coral husbandry and aquaculture over the past few decades, so this project is achievable right now.

Great Barrier Reef Legacy is committed to working in consultation with Traditional Owners, recognising that First Nations people have a deep seated connection to their land and sea country and play a crucial role in the conservation of Australia's natural environment. Work is underway, creating T.O. led ‘hubs’ along the coast of the Great Barrier Reef.

Great Barrier Reef Legacy acknowledges that climate change is the biggest threat to coral reefs and efforts to reduce greenhouse gases should not only continue but be accelerated. Similarly, at a regional level, it is critical that work to improve the quality of water flowing from the catchment and reduce the impacts of Crown-of-Thorns Starfish continues to be supported.

The Forever Reef Project is designed to complement existing practical efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and reduce regional pressures on coral reefs from land- based and water-based activities. It recognises that the positive benefits from actions to reduce greenhouse gases and improve water quality will take time. From years to decades. And every year we risk losing our most vulnerable corals.

The Forever Reef Project is designed to preserve the genetic diversity of corals—to act as an insurance policy—while important work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve water quality not only continues but hopefully accelerates.

The Forever Reef Project is a critical part of a whole-of-ecosystem approach to safeguarding the future of our reefs using proven technology. It is one tool in the toolbox designed to complement other vitally important actions to reduce climate change.

Whilst our initial goal is to collect the hard corals of the Great Barrier Reef (these are the ones that are responsible for actually ‘building’ coral reefs), we acknowledge that soft coral also has an incredibly important role in habitat creation and biodiversity. Therefore we plan to include these in our collection, once the hard coral biodiversity is secured. Additionally, the beauty of this project is that it has been designed to be replicable. We have a long term vision to create hubs in every coral hotspot around the world.

In an ideal world, we won't need to. We will act on Climate Change, as a global civilisation, and stabilise conditions that are favourable to support coral life. However, if we continue to lose corals from the wild, it may be our last option. We see our role as preserving biodiversity. There are many other great organisations out there who are focused on reef restoration and we would make our coral fragments available to them for restoration purposes, if needed. Our fragments are already being made available for various research purposes.

Again, in an ideal world, yes it would, however the truth is that corals are not surviving in the wild as they should. In other parts of the world, people are collecting corals as a last resort. We have a window of opportunity to act on the Great Barrier Reef, before the situation worsens. We work with a leader in sustainable fishing, who collects coral on our behalf, tapping into their already existing quota. We are not taking any additional coral from the reef, but merely diverting it away from the aquarium trade into our project. We also do not take full colonies. We only take a sample of each colony, leaving the mother stock on the reef to continue growing.

We are! The Forever Reef Project is not about taking money away from existing actions to save the Reef, it's about doing more, which includes creating an insurance policy to ensure we can maintain the full biodiversity of corals today, for tomorrow, because with every bleaching event we are losing the most vulnerable corals and reefs.

We need to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, more to improve water quality and more to reduce local pressures on reefs. But the reality is the effects of all these actions will take many years to translate into improved conditions for the survival of coral reefs locally and even longer on a regional level.

The Forever Reef Project is about creating an ‘ark’ to preserve coral biodiversity which buys us time. Our project will also be instrumental in supporting other reef research and restoration efforts by providing a land-based set of living coral fragments, genetic and tissue samples to speed up our knowledge and ability to save natural systems like the Great Barrier Reef. GBR Legacy is seeking funding, additional to existing programs, to protect the reef for future generations.

The Forever Reef Project is being rolled out in stages as we need to start preserving coral biodiversity now. We're a not-for-profit and funding for the full facility is not secured yet but that's not stopping us. We have already completed stage 1 - the concept phase, and stage 2 is about activating Great Barrier Reef Legacy's existing network of incredible partners and supporters, and using proven technology and approaches, to start collecting and preserving coral biodiversity this year.

The staged approach allows us to start preserving coral biodiversity immediately while we pilot, test and refine systems and work with the community and experts on the final design of the facility so it not only preserves the world’s coral biodiversity but maximises social, cultural and economic benefits for everyone.

Lots of organisations are working to safeguard the Great Barrier Reef and sometimes Great Barrier Reef Legacy which is based in Port Douglas, is confused with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation which is based in Brisbane.

Although both not-for-profit charities working collaboratively safeguard the future of the Great Barrier Reef, we run different programs and are two separate entities. Check out the links to find out more about our respective programs.

The vast majority of funding for the Project comes from public donations and philanthropic support, which is why we need your help to complete and care for our collection.

In order to achieve our initial goal of collecting, preserving and maintaining all 400+ hard coral species on the Great Barrier Reef, we will need to raise $1 million AUD.