The most effective way to manage coral reef resources and reduce the damaging impacts of human activities is through the direct involvement of user communities. This can only occur if people are aware of the status of reefs, their economic and cultural values, and the damage being done to reefs and probable causes. Communities must also be aware that there are solutions, and many of the solutions are within their control. The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) seeks to raise that awareness by involving all users in gathering data on the status and trends in coral reefs using basic methods. Thus, there are two critical products from monitoring: the data and information on reef status and trends; and the awareness that is generated by gathering those data. We have heard people say many times: ‘we did not know how bad is was until we put the tape measure down and started counting’.

Monitoring and assessment of coral reefs were previously regarded as a role for coral reef scientists who had rigorous training in coral reef biology. It was assumed that precise data were necessary for reef conservation and management, but this conflicts with other success stories. For example, thousands of people around the world gather data on bird populations, distribution, and migration patterns, and many people gather weather data after careful instruction on reading a few weather instruments and observing the sky. The data are usually analysed by trained ornithologists and meteorologists, but the patterns would be nothing without observations from thousands of volunteers. We have found through the Reef Check surveys that there are hundreds of people willing to carefully monitor coral reefs. Over 80 governments, many from developing countries, have asked for assistance to monitor their coral reefs during regional meetings organised through the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI). The demand is there for the GCRMN.

The GCRMN recognises three overlapping levels of monitoring: community, government and research, with the intensity of monitoring increasing with each level.

• Community — monitoring by communities, fishers, schools, colleges, tourist operators, and tourists over broad areas with less detail, to provide information on the reef status and causes of damage. Community-level monitoring uses Reef Check methodology and approaches, which were specifically designed for people with little previous experience and qualifications, but who can be trained quickly and efficiently. The monitoring focuses on the proportion of live and dead coral, and counts of easily recognised animals of particular interest to the community — key target species such as high-prized fish, lobsters, sea cucumbers etc.
• Government — this is monitoring, by predominantly tertiary-trained personnel in government environments or fisheries departments and universities, for moderate coverage of reefs at higher resolution and detail. Governments will be asked to establish a series of sites throughout the country to visit every year or two to determine trends and also to assess current or planned marine protection, with comparisons of adjacent un-managed sites to assess the effectiveness of management.
• Research — this is high-resolution assessment over small scales by scientists and institutes currently monitoring reefs for research. This level of assessment is essential to provide the quality control for the community and government levels, and to determine accurately the causes of damage to reefs. The GCRMN will encourage and, if requested, coordinate scientific monitoring, but cannot be involved in method or site selection. These are choices for the individual scientists.

The particular value of community-level monitoring is the enormous number of people throughout the world who are potential participants. Moreover, many of these people have detailed knowledge of the reefs and their resources, and a direct interest in maintaining them as sustainable providers of food and services into the future. The number of people who participate in monitoring may only be limited by the enthusiasm and available time of the people able to train and supervise the collection of data. A special target will be to introduce Reef Check monitoring into schools and colleges, to involve the next generation of decision makers.

The major stakeholders are the people who live on reefs and derive some of their income from reef resources. Our stakeholders are also the millions of tourists who want to enjoy reefs as magnificent concentrations of life — biodiversity. In addition, the governments of about 100 countries with reefs are, or will be, stakeholders in the GCRMN, thus the goal is to be particularly inclusive. International agencies, regional and global banks, nongovernmental organisations and education and marine science institutes are both stakeholders and partners.

Resource managers are special stakeholders in the GCRMN because they require information and data for planning. However, there is need to recognise that resource managers often have to make urgent decisions, which need to be made before an appropriate scientific monitoring program can be designed and implemented. There often remains a gulf between what research scientists offer and what management really want, thus the GCRMN aims to work with reef managers to bridge that gap. One particular theme of the GCRMN is to monitor marine protected areas to guide managers in selecting the correct management strategies.

The GCRMN emphasises the involvement of local communities in monitoring with equal emphasis on biophysical as well as socioeconomic data. Wherever possible, the GCRMN involves existing organisations and networks, integrates existing monitoring programmes, and maintains flexibility to incorporate different methods of monitoring, other than the ‘standard methodology’. The Network must be responsive to reef users and provide feedback in an understandable format. The main activity will probably be introducing or strengthening the capacity to examine reefs by providing a consistent monitoring program that will identify trends in coral reefs and discriminate between natural, anthropogenic, and climatic changes.

A full range of all reef types will be monitored, with particular emphasis on existing or planned marine protected areas (MPAs) to provide data on the resources and effectiveness of management. This will be coordinated with the World Bank, IUCN/CNPPA, GBRMPA Global Representative System of Marine Protected Areas project for site selection and questions asked by MPA management.

In the early 1990s, international agencies recognised that reefs were declining and formed the UNEP-IOC-IUCN-WMO (United Nations Environment Programme, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, World Conservation Union, World Meteorological Organisation) Global Task Team on the Implications of Climate Change on Coral Reefs. This team of about a dozen coral reef experts from around the world had two tasks: to select the basic methods and protocols to monitor reefs; and report on the implications of global climate change for reefs. The methods chosen were developed during the ASEAN-Australia Living Coastal Resources project between 1984 and 1994 (see English, Wilkinson and Baker in Suggested Reading) as the basis for government level monitoring. These include the manta-tow method, which involves towing a diver behind a boat for a series of two-minute intervals to obtain a broad perspective, and a series of transect tapes laid on the reef to assess categories of the bottom (as easily recognised life-forms) and counts of fish, particularly those targeted by fishermen.

The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) was launched at the UN Small Islands Developing States conference in Barbados in 1994, and held its first major meeting in Dumaguete, Philippines, in mid-1995. The 35 countries present developed ‘The Call to Action’ and ‘The Framework for Action’, which included increased coral reef monitoring, and asked the sponsors of the Global Task Team to take up the challenge. Thus the GCRMN was set up under the sponsorship of IOC/UNESCO, UNEP and IUCN, with the World Bank joining as a sponsor in 1998. The GCRMN is based at AIMS (Australian Institute of Marine Science) and ICLARM (International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management, Manila), and has a broadly-based Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee to provide science and management advice. ReefBase, the global coral reef database in ICLARM is the end repository for the data. The GCRMN is also a contributor of coral reef data to the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS).

The GCRMN will function as a network of independent Regional Nodes that will coordinate training, monitoring, and databases within participating countries and institutes in regions based on the UNEP Regional Seas Programme: Middle East; Western Indian Ocean and Eastern Africa; South Asia; East Asian Seas; Pacific; and Caribbean and Tropical Americas.

An important innovation was the decision of GCRMN and Reef Check to join forces in 1998 to expand the network of monitoring of coral reefs throughout the world. There is a natural division of emphasis: the GCRMN focusses on government level monitoring; whereas Reef Check targets community and volunteer monitoring. The union was made easy because both projects use compatible methods and send their data to ReefBase.

One Node is functioning in South Asia, funded by the UK, with the governments of India, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka giving strong support. Training has been ongoing and the participants have been gathering data on the status of reefs, particularly after the severe bleaching event that started in April. This Node is also playing a key role in the development of a manual for assessing socioeconomic parameters based on existing systems developed by UNEP, ICLARM and the University of Rhode Island (USA) for coastal communities. Another Node is functioning in the South Indian Ocean with assistance from the Indian Ocean Commission and the European Union, involving Comores, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, and the Seychelles. Initial training has been completed, and reef monitoring has started at designated national sites. The countries of the East African coast have agreed to cooperate in reef monitoring and a funding proposal has been submitted by the Kenyan government to Sweden.

Monitoring training has been conducted in the Pacific, coordinated by SPREP, in the Cook Islands, Saipan, Tonga, Palau, Papua New Guinea, and Pohnpei, initially with trainers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science, but now the trainees are the trainers. The Pacific countries are enthusiastic supporters, largely because of a successful Pacific Year of the Coral Reef campaign conducted by SPREP. The countries have agreed on the composition and hosts of six nodes for the whole Pacific. The government of Hawaii is formulating plans for monitoring involving both scientific and community level participants.

Countries in southeast Asia are continuing the monitoring that they first started in the mid-1980s and now Vietnam, Cambodia, and Burma will participate in training funded by Japan, which is itself building a large coral reef conservation centre. There is considerable ongoing monitoring in the Caribbean, and this will expand with the help of the UNEP offices and the Caribbean database in Jamaica. Initiatives by the World Bank and Mexican government are important catalysts towards improving monitoring and management of Central American reefs.

Finally, this booklet is a product of the GCRMN and incorporates data and information assembled by GCRMN, Reef Check and other experienced coral reef experts. Our goal is to use this as the baseline to judge our performance and we aim to update the information every two years.

Clive Wilkinson is the Coordinator of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, based at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, in Townsville (e-mail: c.wilkinson@aims.gov.au ), and Bernard Salvat is Chair of GCRMN Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee, based at the University of Perpignan in France (e-mail: bsalvat@univ-perp.fr ).