#Status of Coral Reefs 2002 - International Coral Reef Action Network

Status of Southeast Asia Coral Reefs
GAPS IN MONITORING AND CONSERVATION CAPACITY
The importance and significance of monitoring are not fully appreciated by government
agencies resulting in inadequate resources to support effective monitoring and data
management. Many monitoring programs are not supported over a long term and the
information derived lacks the foundation to support good management decisions.
Monitoring data are also not analysed in a timely manner to be useful to management.
Some countries lack reef monitoring capacity altogether. There are also obvious
information gaps of coral reefs from Myanmar and Brunei Darussalam that need to be
addressed to provide a more complete regional assessment.
The common problems associated with the lack of management capacity such as
inadequate legislation, inadequate public education, inadequate manpower, limited
financial support and agency conflicts all point to the political unwillingness to invest in
the management of coral reefs for sustainable development. In most cases, there is a lack
of a national or provincial policy on coral reefs.
In Thailand for example, most of its coral reefs are being used for ecotourism. Lessons
learnt from the past showed very obviously that protection measures against reef
degradation were mostly delayed. In order to avoid or minimise coral reef degradation in
the future, a more effective action plan is absolutely required. Public awareness and
participation are also important for coral reef conservation, and they require long-term
support from several agencies.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The disparity in reef monitoring capacity among the region’s countries has to be
addressed, and the present level of monitoring enhanced to make monitoring more
relevant and useful to management. Monitoring must be long-term to avoid the decisions
based on short-term and temporary phenomena. Efforts should be increased to ensure
that reef monitoring data are analysed and presented quickly to influence policy responses
for reef conservation. In addition, better policy actions can lead to enhanced monitoring.
The Philippines is developing a quality control certification process to assist in reef
management, which is also linked to funding from the government. Scientists must also
be responsible for giving proper interpretation of reef monitoring data to prevent sending
misleading messages to the public, which may lead to further deterioration of reefs.
A review of different management regimes which have proven effective in conserving or
protecting reefs should be conducted and publicised, as these will serve as effective
learning lessons that can be replicated across the region to suit different localised
conditions and settings. A clear expansion of such efforts will help to increase
management of more reefs and help to alter the trend of degradation. This will help
governments realise and appreciate the full economic benefits that can be derived from
well managed reefs. The coral reefs of the Philippines for example, are estimated to have a
potential sustainable economic value of approximately US$9 billion (net present value)
and net annual benefits of US$1 billion per year.
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