Status of Coral Reefs of the World 2000

Status of Coral Reefs of Northern Central America
Niño event and subsequent La Niña event.
• A variety of capable localised monitoring and research programmes exist
especially in Mexico and Belize, but the lack of a regional monitoring capacity
and poor data sharing among programmes has hindered a better understanding
of these systems and conservation efforts. A regional monitoring program for the
MBRS is currently being developed to address these deficiencies and preliminary
efforts are currently underway.
• Overall management and conservation awareness is advanced in Belize and
Mexico, while capacity continues to grow in the other countries. Yet, the ability
to address and minimise anthropogenic threats is highly variable and completely
absent in some areas. Few mechanisms are in place to promote trans-border
coordination and cooperation to reduce the escalating scale of human impacts.
Poor or inconsistent enforcement of existing regulations is a continuing problem.
• Over 90 marine and coastal protected areas encompass more than 45,000km 2 of
marine resources, but many of these lack financial sustainability and trained
personnel to be effective. Mexico and Belize have the legal and institutional
framework to implement MPAs, while the other countries often lack legislation,
and all are in need of financial sustainability.
• A significant step towards protecting coral reefs was the signing of the Tulum
Declaration (1997) by 4 neighbouring countries; a conservation strategy for the
Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. International efforts are underway to strengthen and
coordinate national policies, management programmes, monitoring efforts, and
other actions aimed at conservation and sustainable use.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• A lack of understanding of ecological processes contributing to reef health limits
our ability to conserve them, thus it is important to improve knowledge of these
processes. A high priority is to identify and characterise the extent and condition
of coral reef habitat and associated organisms, especially in less known areas as
Nicaragua, mainland Guatemala/Honduras, offshore islands and banks like Swan
Islands and Mysteriosa banks, and reefs in the eastern Pacific. Other data gaps
include physical oceanographic and climate meteorological phenomena and
how these interact with anthropogenic threats, and the ecological connections
between reefs and adjacent coastal ecosystems and watersheds.
• Coral reefs that warrant immediate protection need to be identified, particularly
those with high biological production; biodiversity hot spots; endangered,
imperilled, or rare species; nursery and breeding areas; sources of larval corals,
fish and other important reef organisms; and those at risk of pollution or other
human impacts.
• Unsustainable and unregulated development of coastal resources must be
eliminated throughout the region by developing effective land use strategies,
implementing/enforcing appropriate land use regulations, eliminating
inappropriate uses of resource, and minimising unsustainable tourism and
industrial development. Sources of land based pollution need to be identified
and actions to reduce the impacts need to be developed. Mechanisms to
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