In 1996, at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Panama City, Clive Wilkinson and Bernard Salvat organized a symposium to summarise the status of the world’s coral reefs. Leading coral reef scientists with direct experience of the condition of reefs in many parts of the world presented summary statements about reef regions and these were published in the symposium proceedings. The scientific papers presented at the symposium have been summarised and updated for this booklet which aims to inform the public, decision makers, international agencies, and the media about the current status of coral reefs around the world. Since the Panama meeting, coral reefs of the world have been seriously impacted by a major coral bleaching event in 1997 and 1998. A summary of this event is included, listing the countries affected.

The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) is producing this book to provide an up-to-date summary of reef status for the International Tropical Marine Ecosystems Management Symposium in Townsville, Queensland, in November 1998. The GCRMN was established in 1995 at a meeting of the International Coral Reef Initiative held in the provincial town of Dumaguete in Southern Philippines with over 35 countries present. The GCRMN aims to promote regional networks for gathering consistent information about coral reefs so that governments will be better aware of the state of these valuable resources. This Network is hosted jointly by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM). ReefBase, the global database for the GCRMN is hosted by ICLARM.

Coral reef research has been a major theme of study at AIMS since it started in 1972, and AIMS has established itself as a centre for the development of marine monitoring methodology. The methods used by the GCRMN were developed by AIMS in collaboration with scientists from five ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand) during the ASEAN-Australia Living Coastal Resources Project from 1984 to 1994. Copies of the methods manual (English, S., Wilkinson, C., Baker, V., 1997, Survey Manual for Tropical Marine Resources, 2nd Edition, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, p. 390) are available through the AIMS home page: www.aims.gov.au.

ICLARM has an active program of research and training on the use, health, monitoring, and management of coral reefs, with an emphasis on those in developing countries. Coral reefs are fragile but productive ecosystems on which millions of poor people in developing countries depend. As part of its international review activities, ICLARM and the World Resources Institute, the World Conservation Monitoring Centre and the United Nations Environment Programme recently conducted a model-based assessment of the degree of threat to selected coral reefs around the world. The report of this study, Reefs at Risk (Bryant et al. 1998) is recommended as a complement to this volume of empirical scientific studies on reefs.

AIMS is a supporter of the International Coral Reef Initiative and hosts the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) at its headquarters in Townsville. AIMS is able to provide both logistical and financial support in monitoring methodology, data analysis, and for publications, and we are happy to assist in the production of this book. Members of the AIMS Long-Term Monitoring Project have provided training in monitoring methods for the GCRMN in several countries of the Pacific and southeast Asia (Cook Islands, Tonga, Saipan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam). The GCRMN is also supported by the government of the USA through grants to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO and the United Nations Environment Programme.

AIMS is also involved in long-term, large-scale monitoring of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and reefs of northwestern Australia. This information is made directly available to the major management agencies for Australian reefs: the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and Western Australia’s Conservation and Land Management Department.

AIMS and ICLARM recognise that different levels of monitoring are required to obtain data and information on the thousands of coral reefs spread across the tropical and subtropical oceans. There are just too few scientists available to visit more than just a few of these reefs, and detailed scientific monitoring is both time consuming and expensive. Indeed it is becoming harder to find money for coral reef monitoring in these difficult financial times. Thus the approach of the GCRMN is to encourage reef monitoring by communities and volunteers, and governments and institutions in the developing world.

The GCRMN is focussing on monitoring by governments in developing countries around the world. It is doing this by establishing networks of adjacent countries and by providing the networks with training and basic equipment. A critical role is to search for funds to run these networks. To date, the European Union and the Governments of the UK and Sweden have provided funds for networks to get started. These networks are also assisted by research scientists in these countries and others nearby to provide the training and assistance in data analysis and report writing.

The GCRMN has combined with Reef Check out of Hong Kong to cover the community and volunteer level monitoring. Reef Check has only been established for two years, but it has galvanised hundreds of volunteers, who work with coral reef scientists to assess hundreds of reefs in over 40 countries. The Reef Check network is being expanded to provide communities around the world who want to assess and manage their own coral reefs with the basic methodology.

The GCRMN has two distinct goals: gathering information on the status and trends in coral reefs around the world; and raising awareness amongst those who do the monitoring and receive the information on the need for immediate action to reduce the damaging impacts of human activities. The data will be contributed to the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) of the IOC to construct models of coastal ecosystems.

The awareness-raising goal is particularly important as most reefs are so remote that only adjacent communities have the capacity to implement surveillance and direct management to stop damaging practices. These communities in turn will put pressure on governments to implement better regulations to prevent damage from pollution and sediment flow resulting from poor land practices, such as clear-felling of tropical forests. Over-fishing is another major threat, particularly when the fishing is done with cyanide poison and dynamite.

This is the strength of the partnership between AIMS and ICLARM: AIMS is a scientific institute that is focussed on gathering data on tropical marine ecosystems; whereas ICLARM seeks to work with peoples of the developing world to improve their livelihoods, through wise use of their resources and through promoting aquaculture and sustainable development.

The goal of this book is to make the information from leading scientists available to a wide audience outside the scientific community. It gives the latest summary of coral bleaching gathered from contributions on the internet and through e-mail listings. Many reefs around the world have been seriously damaged by bleaching over the last 12 months, but there is also evidence that large areas of the world’s reefs have not been impacted at all.

We welcome this summary report on the status of the world’s reefs. This report will constitute a baseline against which we can measure our attempts to introduce better management of reef resources in the future. The recent bleaching event demonstrates that long-term monitoring data are essential, as many reefs around the world have already been severely impacted by natural impacts and direct and inadvertent human activities. It will be critical to follow-up the bleaching to determine whether bleached corals are able to recover and whether reefs can bounce back after a massive setback. Programs like the GCRMN and Reef Check must continue to monitor the reefs after this bleaching to assess whether the corals recover or die, whether there is regrowth of damaged corals, or whether new recruits are settling. If the reefs do not recover, this may be a sign that there are other stresses preventing natural recovery, and this information may guide resource managers as to what other pressures must be reduced to speed up the recovery process.

We endorse the efforts of the GCRMN and encourage you to read this book.

Russell Reichelt
Director
Australian Institute of Marine Science
Townsville

Meryl Williams
Director General
International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management
Manila

Patricio Bernal
Executive Secretary
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission