Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN)

What we do: Background and Objectives

Global reef monitoring was a major theme when the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) was launched at the United Nations Global Conference on Sustainable Development of Small Islands Developing States in Barbados in 1994. In 1995, ICRI called on many nations to commit themselves towards increasing research and monitoring of reefs to provide the data for effective management (The Call to Action and Framework for Action). At that time, the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) was established as one of the operating units of ICRI.

The GCRMN aims to improve management and sustainable conservation of coral reefs for people by assessing the status and trends in the reefs and how people use and value the resources. In summary, the core objectives of GCRMN are:

To link existing organisations and people to monitor ecological and social, cultural and economic aspects of coral reefs within interacting regional networks.
To strengthen the existing capacity to examine reefs by providing a consistent monitoring program, that will identify trends in coral reefs and discriminate between natural, anthropogenic, and climatic changes.
To disseminate results at local, regional, and global scales on coral reef status and trends, to assist environmental management agencies implement sustainable use and conservation of reefs.

What we do: Strategy and Approach

The overall strategy of the GCRMN is to involve monitoring experts in each of the GCRMN Nodes to train trainers in participating countries, to gather data on trends in the health of coral reefs and develop skills. Experienced marine institutes will assist in training, establishing of databases and problem resolution.

Ecological Monitoring: A range of reef types will be monitored along line transects, assessing easily recognisable lifeforms and total fish counts, with specific counts of 'target' fish of commercial or recreational value. As people gain more experience, monitoring will be upgraded using the same methods, but to species level. Training starts with Reef Check methods before progressing to GCRMN level methods.

Socioeconomic Monitoring: Local communities will be questioned on their use and knowledge of reef resources and how management may be improved. A major focus is on training people in the use of the Socioeconomic Manual for Coral Reef Management.

Monitoring data will be accumulated in each Node within a specialised database for distribution within the region and to ReefBase (The WorldFish Center). These will be combined into biannual reef status summaries and disseminated to international forums, organisations and the media.