Rasfari Reef is a popular diving and snorkelling site located in the North Male’ Atoll, which is a protected area in the Maldives. This area is known for its abundant marine life, including Manta ray aggregations, diverse coral reefs, rich biodiversity, and beautiful underwater landscapes. Coral reefs are critical to Maldives’ economy and coastal resiliency. The Kaafu atoll Rasfari Reef was significantly damaged when a cargo ship ran aground the reef in 2021. Coral restoration efforts in the region will require enhanced data collection to monitor progress,  evaluate options, and measure success. The proposed pilot program was informed by the presentations made at the workshop “Unlocking the Power of Digital Data & Technologies for Climate Resilience” which was a two-day strategy and learning workshop to support the deployment of digital data, technologies, and tools for climate action, jointly convened by the Maldives Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, and Technology and the World Bank in 2022.

The proposed pilot aims to leverage Passive Acoustic Monitoring to inform coral restoration efforts at Rasfari Reef by the Maldives Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The scope of the pilot includes planning meetings, development of custom research protocols, on-site and virtual trainings and workshops, on-site site assessments, securing equipment, deploying equipment, data collection, data retrieval, data analysis, comparison with an unimpacted reef, and creation of a baseline database and data summary for current and future reference.

·Establish a pilot baseline passive acoustic monitoring program.