Coral reefs: challenges and opportunities for sustainable management

Abstract

The principal objective of this conference was to mobilize action in support of coral reef conservation and management. The best available information on the status of coral reefs worldwide tells us that reefs are in decline or threatened over a large part of their distribution. The conference revolves around three major themes dealing with destructive use of coral reef resources. These include reef-destructive fishing, such as blast fishing, muro ami, cyanide and other poison fishing used in the live aquarium and food fish trades. Related to the live reef fish trade is the unsustainable and often illegal trade in reef products, including a variety of corals, sea horses, mollusks, and sponges, as well as sea turtles and dugongs. Finally there is the exponential growth of marine-based tourism. The challenge lies in identifying viable alternatives to current tradeoffs between long-term sustainability and short-term gains in the management and use of reef resources. To be sustainable, management solutions must be informed by science, stimulated by economics, and reinforced by laws. There have been several pilot studies. A major contribution of this forum will be to document these approaches in the context of the conference themes, assess their effectiveness, and identify means to develop them further with a view to incorporating the more successful ones into the design of Bank projects.