As part of our 2030 Agenda, at Iberostar, we are committed to improving the health of the ecosystems surrounding our hotels by 2030, bettering the quality of the destinations. To this extent, we research, conserve and restore these ecosystems.

We want to create a model of tourism that contributes to marine and coastal health, restoring the benefits provided by ecosystems in our destinations and managing natural areas in a sustainable way while supporting natural economies and ensuring the economic return from tourism activity.

To do this, we have two courses of action:

• Reef conservation and restoration
• Research 

In 2022, the coastal health team focused on coral restoration in areas with the highest risk of coastal impact and where corals could reduce this risk through attenuating wave force. The work focused on Paraiso Beach, Bavaro and Jamaica.

Until this year, we had 4 coral nurseries:

• Iberostar Selection Hacienda Dominicus (Dominican Republic)
• Complejo Paraíso (Mexico)
• Iberostar Cozumel (Mexico)
• Complejo Rose Hall (Jamaica)

We have created new nurseries:

• Mexico: we added a fifth coral nursery in the Caribbean, which is located in front of the Paraíso Complex.
• Dominican Republic: we have installed a pilot nursery in Puerto Plata.

• We set up new research stations: We set up new research stations at our destinations to conduct experiments to find the corals that are most resilient to climate change. We now have a permanent research station at the Paraíso Complex (Mexico) and a temporary one at the Rose Hall Complex (Jamaica).
• New research developments:

  • Experiments were carried out in Jamaica and Mexico to identify the most temperature-tolerant coral individuals of 4 different species:

    • In Jamaica: Acropora cervicornis, Acropora palmata, Orbicella annularis, Porites astreoides.

    • In Mexico: Montastraea cavernosa, Orbicella annularis, Orbicella faveolata, Porites astreoides.

  • Genetic testing was carried out to identify new single DNA individuals of the species Acropora cervicornis to increase the genetic diversity of this species in coral restoration efforts in the Dominican Republic.