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Evolving
issues
GCRMN
Book preview STATUS OF CORAL REEFS IN TSUNAMI AFFECTED COUNTRIES:
2005 new
Vestergaard,
O. and Cattermoul, B. (2005): Building an Integrated Coral Reef
Monitoring Network - Lessons from the GCRMN South Asia. In Souter,
D. and Linden, O. (eds.) CORDIO Status Report 2005 new
Working
papers: understanding information needs in reef management planning
Informing
& Influencing Strategy for GCRMN South Asia (summary)
GCRMN
South Asia: Understanding Information Needs
Get
output from IMM-DFID's Reef Livelihoods Assessment study:
Poverty
& Reefs, Volume 1: Global Overview
Poverty
& Reefs, Volume 2: Case Studies ((including
Lakshdadweep Reefs, Gulf of Manar and Andaman Islands)
UNESCO
Science Newsletter on Poverty & Reefs, Oct 2003
Introduction
View 'GCRMN South Asia in brief'
A
regional network to support reef management across South Asia
The
Global Coral Reef
Monitoring Network (GCRMN) is a global, interagency initiative
under the stewardship of the Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO,
UNEP, IUCN
and the World
Bank. Its aim is to aid the long-term development of coral reef
monitoring programmes in all coral reef countries.
The
GCRMN is a part of the International
Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), its role being to deliver critical
information to managers, policy makers, donors and communities and
to raise awareness of coral reef issues amongst all stakeholders.
As an international initiative with a significant amount of political
influence ICRI has the potential to affect the operations and livelihoods
of stakeholders at all levels. By providing appropriate information
to this initiative it should enable the decision making process
that feeds into international policy and donor funding to be grounded
in local level needs.
Since
1997 the UK Department
for International Development (DFID) has provided funds to IOC-UNESCO
to develop the GCRMN in 3 countries in South Asia - India, Sri Lanka
and the Maldives. During the first phase of funding there was a
focus on awareness raising and the development of capacity for biophysical
monitoring across the region. A second phase of funding begun in
1999 and an emphasis was placed on recognising the importance of
socio-economic monitoring for the effective management of coral
reefs.
Through
a series of regional training programmes, held between 1998 and
2000, in biophysical and socio-economic monitoring the GCRMN in
South Asia has attempted to equip researchers and managers with
the tools to collect information that does effectively represent
not only the status of the coral reefs and the reef stakeholders
but also the policies, institutions and processes that affect the
decisions and actions made by those stakeholders.
To
complement the production of this information a database has been
developed which in the future is hoped to provide a storage system
that will facilitate the horizontal (between the information generators)
and vertical (from micro to meso to macro levels) movement of information
on coral reefs.
In 2002 the second phase is due to be concluded and a third dimension
has been added to the work of the GCRMN South Asia. This is designed
to develop the understanding within South Asia of the process of
converting information into action. This is in response to the realisation
that few attempts at using information to inform and influence reach
the right people in the right format to stimulate the kind of change
that is needed.
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For
further information please contact: Christian Wild, IOC/UNESCO,
email: c.wild@unesco.org
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Updated:
September 2005
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