Around the world, community groups, citizen scientists and First Nations rights-holders, are taking actions to monitor, protect and restore marine and coastal habitats to promote ecosystem resilience and enable local communities and economies to adapt to change. Presentations within this session will showcase place-based initiatives by traditional custodians, communities, tourism operators and citizen science groups to monitor and care for reefs and coastal environments. Topics in this session will also provide insight into approaches to centralise traditional knowledge in reef science, and highlight capacity-building initiatives for local stewards.