Status of Coral Reefs of the World 2000

Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2000
Funding
A lack of funds for coral reef monitoring, conservation, economic assessment, education
and awareness underlies the need for greater understanding and management capacity to
maintain healthy coral reefs. This situation is especially true in countries with a low GNP.
Some governments are able to allocate funds to manage coral reef resources, whereas
others must rely on project funds from international and bi-lateral donor governments and
non-governmental organisations. All countries receive assistance through regional
organisations, the principal one being SPREP, which organises the input of expertise,
meetings, training and education in the region.
Capacity Building and Lack of Knowledge
Most countries lack adequate capacity for reef assessment, research and management. Few
have research centres, or tertiary training facilities or even a university campus. While
fisheries departments exist in each country, not all have an Environment department that
can take a more integrated approach. Even when they do exist, these have little power to
coordinate activities with other ministries, which may unknowingly accelerate
environmental degradation. Lack of knowledge varies between countries with markedly
different levels of resource assessment data and information on exploitation of resources.
All countries requested assistance with building capacity to assess resources, particularly at
the subsistence level.
EDUCATION PROGRAMMES
Materials and programmes for education about coral reefs are urgently needed, not only for
the formal education sectors, but also for community leaders, stakeholders and decision
makers interacting with coral reefs. SPREP has been highly active during the last decade in
raising public awareness on coral reefs through radio, TV, posters, leaflets, books etc., but
better outreach to remote areas in all countries is needed. Radio and video are ideal
mediums for communication, however it is essential that material be presented in
languages understood by different population groups.
MARINE PROTECTED AREAS AND COASTAL MANAGEMENT PLANNING
MPAs, Integrated Coastal Management and various zoning initiatives are starting in the more
developed countries, but there is still much to do. Environment Impact Assessments, even
if mandated in some countries, are not enforced or followed. Most are performed after the
event to account for the approval process rather from the design stages. All countries
require urgent legislation for sustainable management of activities in the coastal-marine
zones. At present there are too few MPAs and poor use of international and regional
conventions to effectively conserve the vast and predominately healthy coral reef resources
of this Pacific region.
LEGISLATION AND POLICY
There is a major need to improve legislation and supportive policy contexts to increase the
allocation of coral reef protected areas and provide effective management. There is a need
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