The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) is an operational network organized under the International Coral Reef Initiative to strengthen the availability of scientific data and information on coral reefs status. A 3-days workshop was organized by the French research institute IRCP (Institute for coral reefs in the Pacific) and funded by UNEP to write a report on the status and trends of coral reefs in the Pacific region.
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The workshop was held at the University of Hawaii where marine scientists and conservation managers from all over the Pacific met to share their coral reef monitoring data. Representatives from CNMI, Guam, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Hawaii, Papua New Guinea, American and Western Samoa, Marshall Islands, and Cook Islands participated. PICRC researcher, Ms. Marine Gouezo, attended the workshop to present the coral reef monitoring efforts of PICRC and share some of the center’s data for the propose of this regional report.
The aim of this regional report is to inform policy makers about coral reefs in the Pacific in the last two decades and what drives their decline at the regional scale. Based on the results of the analysis, adapted recommendations will be offered. The report will be presented at a United Nations meeting next year in October. Until then, PICRC will be involved in the reviewing process for the section about Palau in the report.
Once more, this emphasizes the importance of the long term monitoring efforts of PICRC to show the status of coral reefs and trends over time and to make it accessible to the world through this networking initiative. [/restrict]