§6471 Coral reef conservation and restoration assistance

Summary

The Secretary of the Interior can give scientific help, technical advice, and, when funding is available, money to conserve and restore coral reefs. Any help must follow existing resource laws and the National Coral Reef Resilience Strategy and the coral reef action plans under section 205 of the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000. The Secretary can set up a Coral Reef Initiative Program to make grants for local reef management in covered States and Freely Associated States, help National Park Service and National Wildlife Refuge units carry out reef work, support other coral programs, and offer other technical and financial assistance. The Secretary may work with the Secretary of Commerce on reef work in certain federal waters and on awarding the Susan L. Williams Coral Reef Management Fellowship. The Secretary may also make cooperative agreements with covered reef managers to fund work consistent with the strategy and action plans, when funds allow. The words conservation, coral reef, covered reef manager, covered State, National Coral Reef Resilience Strategy, restoration, and State are defined in section 216 of the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000. The words Tribe and Tribal mean Indian Tribes as defined in section 5130 of title 25.