Coastal protection : a cost comparison between natural and artificial structures

Abstract

There is increasing interest in the Caribbean in protecting and restoring coral reef and mangrove ecosystems as alternatives to building artificial structures to provide adaptation and risk reduction benefits to people. To decide on where and how to invest in cost-effective restoration projects, it is critical to understand the costs of ecosystem restoration, the costs of potential alternatives such as gray infrastructure for coastal protection, and the factors that may determine spatial variation in these costs. While there is a significant body of knowledge on the techniques for mangrove restoration and growing knowledge on reef restoration, data and knowledge on the costs of restoration projects and the factors that influence these costs are limited. This policy brief reviews and synthesizes data on the costs of coral reef and mangrove restoration in the Caribbean region with emphasis on Jamaica, Grenada and the Dominican Republic. It focuses on the costs of ecosystem restoration with respect to coastal protection benefits and provides comparisons to the costs of building artificial coastal defenses. This policy brief aims to review costs and the factors that create variation in costs to inform policies, practices and incentives for scaling up restoration actions.