Status of Coral Reefs of the World 2000

Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2000
sustainable low impact aquaculture of valuable species low on the food chain, and training
in coastal management. ICLARM places great importance on regular monitoring and the
dissemination of status reports, and has developed ReefBase as a repository for data and
information on coral reefs as a key link for the GCRMN. ICLARM relies on information
generated by the GCRMN to identify reefs that are not yielding potential harvests, and the
causes for declines. ICLARM will continue to work with the partners in expanding global
monitoring and making the data accessible through ReefBase.
Environmental monitoring is fundamental to informed management and policy making, and
it also functions to raise public consciousness on conservation. The research priorities at
the Australian Institute of Marine Science recognise the importance of monitoring the status
of reefs in Australia and the region for two decades, and significant monitoring
programmes on the Great Barrier Reef and on Western Australian reefs are maintained. Also
considerable scientific effort has gone into developing and formalising monitoring
techniques, with the Survey Manual for Tropical Marine Resources (English et al. 1997 in
suggested reading) as a major product that the GCRMN has adopted as a recommended
set of methods. Many coral reefs of the world are under greater pressures than those in
Australia, and the GCRMN enhances the value of AIMS efforts by putting this monitoring in a
global context and broadening the application methods to reefs worldwide.
Since the last report, the GCRMN and Reef Check have formed a strong strategic
partnership, with the GCRMN focussing on implementing monitoring in nations and states,
whereas Reef Check assists communities and volunteers establish monitoring projects. This
is facilitated because similar methods are used and the protocols recommend that training
start with Reef Check methods and then progress to more detailed GCRMN methods.
This report demonstrates that there has been progress in implementing global monitoring
networks and providing sound information on the status of reefs of the world. But a close
examination will show that there are large regions of the world where the baseline data are
insufficient to determine the status of many coral reefs. This was particularly evident after
1997-98 when it was not possible to determine the impacts of a major bleaching event
because of a lack of such baseline data. Monitoring now has a new role. In places where
the reefs were laid bare and lost much of the previous coral cover, there is a need to first
assess what are the probable losses of coral cover, and then determine the amount and
extent of any recovery, either through the settlement of new corals or regrowth of the few
survivors. A lack of recovery will indicate to reef managers that factors preventing recovery
must be removed, or rehabilitation must be considered.
Coral reef monitoring should never exist on its own – ‘monitoring for monitoring sake’. It
should always be a component of coral reef management, providing the data to determine
suitable areas for protection and then assist management by assessing effectiveness of
management decisions. This will enable resource managers to continually adjust regulations to
ensure maximum sustainability without excessive interference in the lives of local communities.
Therefore, there is a need to enhance this network in those areas where monitoring is
progressing, and introduce monitoring into areas without effective coverage. Moreover, it is
essential that the process of monitoring be made sustainable with adequate financial and
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