Coral reefs are among the most biodiverse and essential ecosystems on our planet, yet they are increasingly threatened by climate change, pollution, and human activity. Recognizing the urgency of this crisis, Care for Coral, a youth-led initiative, has been working to restore and protect Thailand’s reefs through education, community engagement, and hands-on rehabilitation efforts. 

As a Top 5 finalist of the Generation Hope Goals, they will present their work at the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development 2025 in Bangkok on February 26, 2025. In this Q&A, we speak with Pynbhairoh Snidvongs Kruesopon, co-founder of Care for Coral, about their journey, challenges, and vision for a sustainable future. 

What inspired you to start the Care for Coral project? 

When I was 13 or 14 years old, my sister and I started diving. We’re very lucky our parents have taken us to dive all around the world, in Florida and Thailand, and in the Maldives.  

Obviously, Thailand has amazing biodiverse reefs. It’s a destination country for many snorkelers and divers alike. We’ve been to Koh Phi Phi. We’ve been to Phuket and all the different places. One time, we just wanted to really get our heads in the water as we were craving the ocean, and the sea is really beautiful. When we came up from the water, we overheard the two dive masters talking with each other. They were saying something along the lines of that: ‘it was one of the best dives that they’ve seen in a while’. Our hearts sank. That just wasn’t the best compared to what we’ve seen. 

We saw in Thailand that coral degradation was really starting to take place. And just knowing all that we’ve seen—and we’ve been lucky to see so much—we wanted to ensure that Thailand’s coral reefs would be able to sustain themselves in the future. That’s what inspired us to start ‘Care for Coral.’ 

What’s the biggest challenge facing coral reefs today, and how does your project help? 

There’s a lot of different factors right now that are contributing to coral reef degradation. I think the main one would be human-induced climate change because coral reefs really need a specific temperature, pH, salinity and climate to grow. The acidity of the ocean is changing a lot of what the coral reefs are supposed to grow in, and of course also pollution ruining the ecosystem. 

Care for Coral first began with bringing a group of divers and a group of snorkelers together to learn about coral reefs and then create coral nurseries and artificial reefs on land, which we would later deploy to a barren site—somewhere that recently had a severe coral bleaching—so we could create a new artificial reef.  

I think there are three different ways to help with coral reef degradation. There’s what we can do before, then what you can do during, and then also what you can do after, which is the aftermath. Our organization, at least when it started, focused on the aftermath—rehabilitating coral reefs. 

What’s one surprising thing people don’t know about coral reefs? 

I’m not sure if this is something that everyone knows now, but at least for me, when I was quite young, I learned that corals are not plants—they’re actually animals. 

Corals are actually animals, and they have a symbiotic relationship with organisms called zooxanthellae, which attach to the coral and give them their color. It’s actually the zooxanthellae that do the photosynthesis, not the coral itself. So, I think that’s really interesting.   

What do you think is the connection between coral reef and climate change? 

Under the water, our ocean is already a huge carbon sink—one of the largest carbon sinks in the world—and coral reefs play a big role. I think a lot of people don’t think about them anymore because they only cover, I think, less than 0.1% of our ocean floor. And, again, a lot of people just kind of see them as, like, ‘Oh, a pretty garden underwater.’ When people are diving, they only see small sections of it. 

But coral reefs are extremely biodiverse places—home to millions of aquatic animals. Because of the corals’ symbiotic algae and their ability to produce oxygen from carbon dioxide, reefs play a major role in climate change mitigation and how we can help save our planet. In Thailand, for instance, we often see mangroves planted along coastal communities to help with coastal erosion and to break waves for tsunamis or other events. But a lot of people don’t realize that coral reefs do essentially the same thing underwater. 

I think right now, with climate change, there’s also been an increased amount of extreme weather events all over the world. I mean, we just saw what happened in Chiang Mai—our biggest flood in 50 years. And I think that if people continue to rehabilitate coral reefs and understand their importance, we can help mitigate some of the extreme weather that Thailand and other coastal nations are facing; reefs can act as storm breakers as well. So, I think coral definitely has multiple benefits for protecting our coasts. 

How can people—no matter where they live—help protect coral reefs? 

As I said before, there are things we can do beforehand. We really believe in the importance of education and awareness. We’ve done a lot of educational outreach initiatives—going to elementary schools or speaking at panels—just so people can really understand why coral reefs are so important to our environment, and also to kind of instill that passion within younger kids early on, since it’s going to be their future and their reefs. 

When I was writing the proposal for the [Generation Hope Goals], I was thinking about the challenges we face at Care for Coral. One big challenge is definitely funding. Diving equipment is very expensive, and a lot of the time, the people we’re trying to help—local communities or younger kids—don’t have the funding. They need to be able to partake in these projects, and our philosophy is that the people who are going to be most affected need to be empowered with the skills and knowledge to sustain their environment.  

What does it feel like to be one of the top 5 finalists for Generation Hope Goals? 

Getting the monetary award is really amazing for us because it would really help our project a lot. But also, just being able to interact with everybody else and seeing their projects was really nice. Because I remember, when we were doing the online pitching, just hearing about everybody else’s projects made us feel really good that there are so many people in the world who are excited about different environmental projects, and really, any of them could get it. I would be really happy too, because at least we’re helping one part of the environment.  

Generation Hope Goals is a collaborative initiative co-led by Save the Children, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Regional Collaboration Centre for Asia, the Youth Empowerment in Climate Action Platform,  and the Pacific, Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, and ChildFund International.