Socioeconomic
manual
for coral reef management
FORWARD
Coral reef management has focused
traditionally on the biophysical aspects of coral reefs - the corals,
other benthos, fishes and the physics and chemistry of surrounding
waters. Today reefs are coming under increasing pressures from human
activities. Therefore, the human dimension of reef management must
play an important role in reef management programmes that now
emphasise stakeholder involvement, community participation, and
cooperative management. This is especially important in countries
where people depend on reefs for subsistence and commercial fisheries,
shoreline protection, and tourism attractions and yet their behaviour
often adversely affects the health of the reef ecosystems.
Reef researchers, managers, and
policy-makers recognise the importance of understanding not only the
biophysical conditions that determine system structure and processes,
but also the social and economic conditions, contexts, and motivations
that are associated with their use. As a result, interest has grown
among government, non-government, community and research organisations
in guidelines on how to assess socioeconomic conditions and how to
incorporate this information into reef management programmes.
The Global Coral Reef Monitoring
Network (GCRMN) aims to provide critical information and data on both
the biophysical and socioeconomic aspects of coral reefs now and into
the future. This socioeconomic manual, which was developed to
parallel the existing biophysical
manual (English et al. 1997), is intended for use by coral reef
managers directly working on reef management around the world to
assist hem with basic socioeconomic assessments in their communities.
The audience is the manager who does not have formal social-science
training and may use English as a second or third language.
Implementation of this manual should be accompanied by training and
guidance in how to conduct socioeconomic assessments.
We are pleased to recommend this manual
to you as an excellent guide in assessing people who use and affect
coral reefs. Hopefully with its use, there will be greater
appreciation of how people interact with coral reefs and improved
management of their activities to ensure that these marvellous
ecosystems will continue to provide sustainable services for
communities into the future.
Edgardo Gomez
Chair, GCRMN
Science and Technology
Advisory Committee |
Charles Ehler
Vice-Chair (Marine)
World Commission on Protected Areas
IUCN |
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