Forging partnerships in Coral Reef Monitoring in Fiji
© WWFSPP 2006. Early signs of bleaching on Beqa Island.
WWF would like to thank Aqua Trek, a dive operator in Pacific Harbour, Fiji, for supporting the work of WWF to carry out monitoring for signs of coral bleaching.
Coral reefs provide important services to island ecosystems across the Pacific, as well as our economies. Not only are they are major source of food for many of our communities, but they also provide revenues through tourism, as well as valuable protection to our low-lying coast lines from storm surges. It is important, therefore, that we ensure that these reefs are protected. To do this, WWF is taking actions to address one of the biggest threats to coral reefs - global climate change.
Coral reefs are highly sensitive to any changes in sea surface temperatures and once ocean temperatures rise to over 28° Celsius, coral reefs lose the organisms that live in them, which cause them to turn white in colour. Coral reefs are especially vulnerable to climate change, as sustained temperature increases over time can cause the coral to die.
WWF addresses the threat of climate change on reefs from two ways. First, it is working across the globe to reduce the emissions of climate changing gases. At the same time, WWF works in areas such as Fiji, through Friends of the Reef to carry out research on how coral reef eco-systems can be made more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
Through the WWF Friends of the Reef Project, WWF recently worked with USP’s Institute of Marine Resources, to co-host a meeting of the Fiji node of the Global Conservation Marine Network (GCRMN). This meeting brought together organizations working on coral reef conservation to learn more about each others’ roles, review the current status of biological monitoring carried out at sites, and exchange ideas on strengthening the network through improved communications.
The WWF Fiji Friends of the Reef team chaired a session on improving communications. In this session, WWF shared some of the lessons learned from the Friends of Reef project in Kabara, showing the importance of sharing information with the community, who depend upon their coral reefs for their very survival, to ensure the long term sustainability of any conservation efforts. . In Kabara, for example, coral bleaching was identified as a major threat to the livelihoods of fisher-folk, as when corals die, they are unable to provide food and shelter to reef fishes which these communities depend upon. The rapid response work on Kabara has strengthened community management and reporting efforts.
Participants in this session worked together to look at how we can all improve upon our communications within our coral monitoring programmes, to ensure that not only do we share the results of our work amongst each other, but also that these results are shared with the communities that we are working in, and the general public at large. It was stressed that these communications are important if we want to ensure support from all levels of the community, for our on-going coral conservation efforts.
As an outcome of this meeting, members of the Fiji node of the GCRMN established stronger networks between each other, as they became more aware of the different coral monitoring and conservation efforts that each organization is carrying out.
» Download the Friends of the Reef Flyer