Climate Change Action Plan for the Florida Reef System 2010-2015

Appendix 2 • Enabling ConditionsThe Action Plan is more likely to achievesuccess in increasing the resilience of theFlorida Reef System if key enabling conditionsare met. These conditions are outside thescope of this plan to implement, but theyare specifically acknowledged as importantto the wider issues of climate change and itsassociated impacts.1. The nations of the world must establishan international agreement to reducethe rate and extent of climate change byensuring that greenhouse gas emissionspeak no later than 2020, global warmingdoes not exceed 2°C above pre-industrialtemperatures and the atmospheric carbon dioxide equivalents level drops to less than 350parts per million by 2050. Individuals, corporations, local, state and national governmentsmust all contribute to achieving these goals (IPCC 2007, Vernon et al 2009).A deep reef off the Dry Tortugas © Jiangang Luo2. The federal government, State of Florida and other leaders of the Comprehensive EvergladesRestoration Plan must continue to fund and implement the Plan to ensure future deliveryof clean fresh water into south Florida’s estuaries in the proper quantity and with the propertiming and distribution. In a related effort, the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration TaskForce and the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force should increase efforts to collaborate and reaffirmthe fact that the Florida Reef System is a vital component of the South Florida Ecosystem.3. Residents, industries and governments in the Mississippi River Basin must continue toclean-up their watershed to curb nutrient and toxin pollution that makes its way into theNorthern Gulf of Mexico and is transported to the Florida Reef System by currents.4. Supported by the federal government, the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic regional oceangovernance alliances, the individual states that comprise them and the stakeholders theyall serve must complete comprehensive Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning to identifythe range of legal ocean and coastal uses and appropriate locations for such uses that willminimize conflicts among users while striking a sustainable balance between economicproduction and ecosystem protection. (20)5. Coral reefs and reef-dependent wildlife located in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea,up-current from the Florida Reef System, must be effectively managed in order to continueto supply Florida with juvenile fish, spiny lobster and other invertebrates and to maintain thehabitats needed by wide-ranging species.6. Relevant components of this reef-specific Action Plan should be incorporated into the morecomprehensive climate change action plans now under development at municipal, county,southeast Florida regional, state, and federal levels of government.14 2010–2015 — Climate Change Action Plan for the Florida Reef System