Asa Miller – Viva el Vivero: Finding the Best Nursery for Cuba’s Coral
Bioneers | Published: April 23, 2025 Restoring EcosystemsYouth Video
Asa Miller has taken a simple yet revolutionary step to contributing to solving the climate crisis, one that doesn’t involve convincing others with data or investing billions in new technologies: he decided to reconnect with his roots and help restore a part of his ancestral homeland. A multi-award-winning marine conservationist and his town’s Youth Poet Laureate, Asa returned to his native Cuba in an effort to help restore the country’s coral reefs, and found there communities not paralyzed by the injustices of climate change but catalyzed by their love of their land and its living things. Asa shares his challenges and rewards working with our under-resourced neighbor, and the lessons he brings back to our own over-resourced world.
This talk was delivered at the 2025 Bioneers Conference.
Asa Miller, 18, a marine science researcher and Greenburgh, NY’s Youth Poet Laureate, is an international leader in marine conservation who combines an acute knowledge of the issues facing marine ecosystems with the sensibility and creativity of a poet. He has conducted coral reef conservation in both his native Cuba and in Israel, each time working with teams whose collaborations transcended conflicts and borders. His documentary short “Coral Reef Restoration” has screened and won awards at 26 international film festivals. He is a winner of the Brower Youth, National Marine Educators Association Youth Leadership in Marine Conservation, and Blue Hatchling Youth awards.
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