A new eco-friendly invention poses as a solution to the country’s dying coral reefs as it hopes to make a noble contribution to global climate change adaptation. Joint ventures Winace Holdings Philippines, Inc. and Eco-Coral Corporation introduced the internationally patented Eco-coral® at the Second National Conference on Climate Change Adaptation held October 26-28, 2009 at the Diamond Hotel, Manila.

“Eco-corals® are artificial corals made with the same pH level of the sea, thus prove conducive to propagating coral reef and reef species when placed with vestigial live reefs,” explains inventor and Eco-Coral President Brian Stanley-Jackson, a New Zealander married to a Filipina who has made the Philippines his home for 17 years now. Stanley says he thought about a better solution to coral reef and marine life propagation than dumping shipwrecks, old fridge, washing machines and rubber tires into the ocean which are “junk and don’t really work.”

While Stanley acknowledges the sincerity in these efforts, “they lack scientific study,” he says. Meanwhile, earlier artificial coral reefs like the BioRock and Reef Balls which are made of copper wire and concrete “only increase sea water acidification over time, thus prove to be harmful rather than helpful.  They’re also not as beautiful as the real corals,” Stanley says.

With scientific knowledge on reef propagation culled over the years, Stanley officially experimented on the artificial Eco-coral® in 2005, tapping Dutch national and Eco-architect Arie Willard, a long-time resident in the Philippines and a business partner of Stanley’s, to provide the aesthetic design; and diving consultant and marine environment researcher Bill McGilton  to provide scientific  monitoring. Eco-pioneer, prominent businessman, and Winace chair Teodorico T. Haresco, Jr. financed the study and allotted for the Eco-coral® laboratory and nursery in Capones Island, Zambales.

The Eco-Coral® is made of environmentally safe materials.  It has a pH level of 7.9-8.2, the natural pH level of sea water.  Weeks after the first Eco-corals® were installed in Capones Island, amazing new coral growth was observed.  Within nine months, the man-made Eco-Coral® was indistinguishable from natural coral.

“Where there is no Eco-coral®, spores, algae, and other reef species just float on the water, they fail to propagate and eventually die. The natural pH level and cratered surfaces of Eco-Coral® provide for the ideal substrate for coral spore attachment,” Stanley says.

“The artificial corals have colors as authentic as those of real corals. We saw that fishes were most attracted to blue and yellow corals,” says designer Arie Willard.

With the complementary device called the Eco-Coral Wall®, Eco-Coral® can be used to build any shape and size of artificial reef. They are manufactured under strictly controlled conditions and can be easily transported and installed on-site.

Eco-corals® have also been installed underwater across Friday’s Rock, Station One Boracay. After eight weeks, turnicates, soft corals, finger corals were seen colonizing the artificial Eco-corals.® A schooling cat fish was also seen over a reef where formerly only black sea urchins visited, the latter being a sure sign of dead corals.

Winace chair Teodorico T. Haresco, Jr. believes there is a need to invest in green businesses like the Eco-corals® which not only provide for a healthier marine ecology but also holds the promise of better livelihood for Filipinos. He reaches out to local government units to help enforce a fishing moratorium on areas where Eco-corals® will be installed. “There will be more fish spawning in areas where there are Eco-corals® than in those areas where there is none. If these fish are allowed to grow to mature sizes so they can propagate, we project that in just one year there will be enough fish in the sanctuary that they will naturally find other territories to live in. That will be the time when fishermen can have a more abundant catch,” says Haresco.

Haresco plans to present the Eco-coral® project document to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as the Philippine response to climate change. The President will attend a high-level world meet on climate change, dubbed COP15, in Copenhagen in December.

A United Nations-backed report entitled The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), published on 3 September 2009 stated, among its central findings, the need to invest in the restoration and maintenance of the earth’s multi-trillion dollar worth of ecosystems—from forests and mangroves to wetlands and river basins—because they will play a key role in countering climate change and in climate-proofing vulnerable economies.  The Philippines' very own Eco-coral® is a direct response to this need.