Reef Resilience Review August 2012

Highlights from the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium

Introducing the new Reef Resilience Network Manager

Recent Publications and Other Resources

To join the Resilience Practitioners Network or to submit updates, contact us at resilience@tnc.org.

For more information about The Nature Conservancy's Reef Resilience Program, visit reefresilience.org.

This newsletter is brought to you through the generous support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program.

Reef Resilience Newsletter:
August 2012

Distributed by the Global Marine Initiative

Highlights from the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium

Terry Hughes giving the opening address of ICRS 2012.
© ICRS 2012

“Marine scientists can afford to be more optimistic about the future,” stated ICRS plenary speaker, the Chief Scientist at The Nature Conservancy, Peter Kareiva. “We give messages of sacrifice and doom and gloom… messages of fear … and that does not work because as any social scientists will tell you, that leads to a state of paralysis.”

Just a few short weeks ago, the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) brought together thousands of people from universities, local organizations and agencies, and NGOs across the globe—all to focus on coral reefs. Hundreds of presentations were given each day of the conference, organized into no less than twenty-two themes ranging from technologies for coral reef science and modeling reef futures, to ocean acidification and human impacts on coral reefs, to management and monitoring and social, economic, and cultural perspectives.

Check out the links below for some of the many conference highlights including:

Release of the Consensus Statement on Climate Change by symposium organizers with signatures of over 3000 supporters
Peter Kareiva’s optimistic plenary speech “Just How Fragile are Coral Reefs? - It Depends”, which gives a fresh outlook on the future of coral reefs, by TNC’s chief scientist.
The televised discussion Can Coral Reefs Survive the 21st Century? with leading experts Helene Marsh, of James Cook University and Jeremy Jackson, the Senior Scientist Emeritus at the Smithsonian Institute.
The pre-conference presentation of the inaugural State of the Coral Triangle Reports from the six nations of the Coral Triangle Initiative.

Also available on the ICRS2012 website are a multitude of resources from the conference, including conference proceedings, ePoster presentations, and plenary speeches.

Daily newspapers were handed out to ICRS delegates with stories on memorable and important moments for the conference:
Monday, 9 July: Welcome to Cairns
Tuesday, 10 July: Let the Symposium begin
Wednesday, 11 July: Research in the clouds
Thursday, 12 July: Praise for courageous colleagues
Friday, 13 July: Jackson gives Darwin Medal address

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Introducing the new Reef Resilience Network Manager, Jordan Jobe

Jordan Jobe, the new Reef Resilience Network Manager. © Nathan Karres

The Reef Resilience Program team of The Nature Conservancy is excited to announce the hire of Jordan Jobe, our new Reef Resilience Network Manager. Jordan comes to us after recently spending a year living and travelling in East Africa. Before this, she completed a Masters of Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies with a concentration in the Social Ecology of Conservation and Development. As part of her Master's program, Jordan spent a summer in Fiji researching ICM policy in the South Pacific, and visited the USVI with a "Coastal Zone Management" course. Prior to graduate school Jordan was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Western Samoa, where she worked with a local non-profit organization on village based coral reef conservation projects including restoration and management activities. Jordan will be managing the Reef Resilience online network of coral reef managers and practitioners and will also support the other aspects of the program, including Reef Resilience newsletters, webinars, and the ‘Reef Resilience and Responding to Climate Change’ Workshop for Trainers. Please join us in welcoming Jordan!

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Spotlight on Maui, Hawai'i

The Hawaiian Islands are the most isolated archipelago in the world, located over 2000 miles from the nearest continental land mass. More than 1.3 million people live in the main Hawaiian Islands and upwards of 7 million people visit annually. While the ocean and its resources are a valuable and essential part of Hawaii’s economy, lifestyles, and Hawaiian cultural heritage, the sheer number of people directly and indirectly affects coral reef health. Recent studies have shown that Maui’s coral reefs have declined by 35 percent over the past 10 years. In an effort to address this decline, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has been collaborating with local partners in building community capacity to care for, manage, and monitor marine resources. Efforts have focused on three areas: site-specific community-based marine conservation planning, building a network of community-based marine managed areas, and effective conservation for marine protected areas.

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