REEFolution Charity Partnership

As of April 2021, Linklaters Amsterdam started a three-year partnership with REEFolution, a Dutch foundation that aims to conserve coral reefs by providing fundamental protection and restoration skills in close cooperation with coastal communities. REEFolution is currently active in Shimoni, Kenya. By combining local and scientific knowledge, REEFolution aids reef recovery and fosters local stewardship. REEFolution has a strong collaboration with Wageningen University and each year, about twenty worldwide scientists conduct research at REEFolution, Kenya. Results are published scientifically and contribute to the worldwide battle against coral reef degradation. REEFolution supports local communities by training and certifying local community members as ‘Reef Rangers’.

 Within this partnership, in February 2023, three of our Linklaters Amsterdam employees, Merel de Winter (Legal Secretary LAI), Jurian van der Pas (Managing Associate Tax) and Pepijn Oosting (Associate Tax), have visited the REEFolution project in Kenya. They learned how to build and construct effective and durable coral nursery trees, deployed artificial reef structures into the sea in specific restoration zones and planted mangrove trees. For an impression of their experiences and what they have learned from ‘one week in the life of a REEF Ranger’ we refer to this video which shows the amazing work of REEFolution in Kenya to which Linklaters was given the opportunity to contribute and participate on-site!

Merel: “I had not expected that one can indeed rebuild broken coral and it was great to actually work on this myself. I was very surprised to see that REEFolution created all this!”

Jurian: “That is something that I really want to take back to the Netherlands, protecting the coral reefs is one thing but it doesn’t mean anything if we don’t consider the broader environmental impact.”

Pepijn: “We need to take action now instead of later, because then we will be too late!”

Our collaboration with REEFolution is a great success and so our partnership with REEFolution continues. We will keep you posted on our further mutual activities!

For more information on REEFolution, their mission and projects, please visit REEFolution.