Volunteer monitoring recruiting people to manage reefs

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Volunteer monitoring -recruiting people to
manage reefs
Reef CheckThe Global Coral Reef Education,
Monitoring Management Programme
Georg A. Heiss Co-ordinator Reef Check
Europe http//www.reefcheck.orghttp//www.reefch
eck.de
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Reefs at Risk

• 58 of the worlds reefs are threatened by human
  activity.
• 80 of Reefs in South East Asia are at risk.
• Pacific least threatened.
• Most biodiversity hot spots are threatened.
• 500 million people live within 100 km of a coral
  reef.

• Coastal development
• Overexploitation
• Destructive fishing practises
• Marine Pollution
• Runoff from deforestation and farming

Bryant et al. 1998 Reefs at Risk, WRI.
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Coral Reefs continue to decline

• 27 of the worlds reefs have been effectively
  lost (2000).
• Massive El Niño-related coral bleaching in 1998
  was the largest single cause
• 16  of the coral reefs were destroyed
• half of these reefs will never recover
• 14  in critical stage, loss in 2-10 years.
• 18  threatened, loss in 10-30 years.
• (Status of Coral Reefs of the World 2000)

coral reef loss
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Reef Check

• Reef Check is...
• ...a global volunteer effort by groups of
  recreational divers led by experienced marine
  scientists to carry out targetted, scientifically
  based, coral reef surveys.
• ...a foundation
• ...a method

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Reef Check global-scale goals

• Science
• a synoptic assessment of human impacts on coral
  reefs
• long-term monitoring of selected sites
• Conservation and Management
• raise public awareness about value of coral
  reefs, threats to their health and solutions
• build a network of monitoring and management teams

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Miami Symposium 1993What is the health of coral
reefs globally?

• Science as usual was not able to give an
  answer
• Too few scientists, too little time on reefs
• Too few study sites
• Few long-term studies
• Emphasis on basic research
• Different questions and methods
• Science as usual not adequate to track rapid
  changes world wide.

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Solution 1996 -- Design of a global survey
method for the International Year of the Reef 1997

• Collect minimum necessary information and meet
  these goals
• Carried out by recreational divers led by
  scientists
• Volunteers training survey must be fun, but
  produce reliable results
• Counting rather than measuring organisms
• Reef health defined by Key Indicator organisms
• Key Indicator global, at least regional
  distribution
• Eco-holistic variety of fish, invertebrates,
  plants, human impacts
• Produce results immediately useful to a reef
  manager

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Reef Check Global Survey Sites

• First global survey of coral reefs in 1997
• 300 reefs surveyed each year in 50 countries

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Global Coral Reef Monitoring
Co-operation

• capacity building (education and training)
• monitoring
• getting local people involved in reef management

• umbrella network for all forms of coral reef
  monitoring
• collecting all available information
• recommending Reef Check methods
• gtgtgtPeriodic Status reports (1998, 2000)

Information
NGO partners, community based
Government partners
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ICRI International Coral Reef Initiative
since 1994 Founding members

• Australia
• France
• Jamaica
• Japan
• Philippines
• Sweden
• UK
• USA

• UNEP
• World Bank
• UNESCO-IOC
• UNDP
• Coral Reef Alliance
• IUCN
• WWF

• ICRI networks
• CORDIO (Coral Reef Degradation in the Indian
  Ocean)
• GCRMN (Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network)
• ICRAN (International Coral Reef Action Network)
• ICRIN (International Coral Reef Information
  Network)

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Target Reef Check communities

• Villagers/fishermen
• Tourist divers
• Local dive clubs
• Government agencies
• Surfers
• Other stakeholders

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Key indicators for reef health used in Reef Check

• Indicators
• Organisms
• e.g. butterfly fish, grouper, lobster, clams, sea
  urchins
• Physical damage, sediment, trash
• Bleaching

• Threats
• Overfishing
• Dynamite fishing
• Cyanide fishing
• Aquarium fish fishing
• Organic pollution
• Curio collection
• Damage by tourism
• Climate Change

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Methods Basic design

• Two depth contours, 3 m and 10 m below chart
  datum (lowest low water).
• Along each contour, four 20 m long line transects
  (replicates) will be deployed and surveyed.
• The transects are separated by a 5 m space.

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Four types of data

• The site description.
• Three transect surveys will be made along the
  same transect line

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Growing support worldwide

• 1997 750 divers, 100 marine scientists,
  31 countries, 315 reefs surveyed
• 1998 gt1000 divers, gt100 scientists,
  40 countries, 250 reefs
• 1999 gt1500 divers, 150 scientists, 50 countries,
  250 reefs
• 2000 still counting

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Reef Check Global Survey Sites
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Worldwide bleaching 1998
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Monitoring options Community involvement

• How to monitor hundreds of reef sites needed in
  each country?
• Involving the community in monitoring is the only
  way forward
• Most cost-effective
• Builds stewardship
• Builds support for government management efforts

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Reef Check Monitoring and Management Model

• Pay part-time trainers and scientists
• Provide seed funding to volunteer groups
• Monitoring is simple and fun so will be repeated
• International donors have borrowed RC methods for
  training purposes
• (But are not yet interested in funding a major
  effort ?)

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Where is Reef Check going?

• Global
• Promote standard methods and global network
• Train more leaders and expand network
• Extensive long-term monitoring and tracking
  system that complements the satellite data
• Close co-operation with ReefBase
• Support from media -- more PR for coral reefs
• Regional
• Set up regional training centres for reef
  monitoring and management
• Promote network of coordinators
• We recognise that each potential funder will be
  interested in a particular region or country.

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Resources and services

• 4000 species of fish1
• 800 species of reef-building corals1
• Coral reefs contribute 1/4 of total fish catch in
  developing countries 2
• Reefs can yield 15t of fish and other seafood per
  km2 and year

• New medicines
• Recreational value, tourism
• Coastal protection
• Costs of destroying one km of reef from  137,000
  to 1.2 million over a 25-year period.3

1Birkeland 1997 Life and death of coral
reefs. 2Jameson et al. 1995 State of the reefs
Regional and global perspectives. 3Cesar 1996
Economic analyses of Indonesian Coral Reefs.
World Bank.
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Protection (?)

• gt 400 marine parks, sanctuaries, and reserves
  contain coral reefs.
• most of these sites are very small, more than 150
  less than 1 km2
• At least 40 countries lack any marine protected
  area for conserving their coral reef systems.