Reef Matters Seminar series by Laurence McCook
This month we were delighted to welcome Laurence McCook to present in our Reef Matters seminar series.
Laurence presented a thoroughly informative and enjoyable talked titled “Successful management and conservation of coral reefs: An overview of What and How” where he discusses conservation strategies and outcomes for coral reefs.
Abstract:
The need for urgent action to protect coral reefs is now beyond question, at least within the scientific community. A key aspect of success in conservation lies in our ability to get better as we go, and learn from our mistakes and our successes- that is to adaptively manage. As we increase efforts, we need to ensure that we continually improve our effectiveness in slowing the global decline in reefs. This means accepting that we won’t get it right first time every time, and that we need to build on successful strategies and improve on unsuccessful ones. The scientific literature includes many critiques of marine conservation problems and mistakes, especially the literature on marine protected areas, but there’s a tendency to see the glass as half empty and throw up our hands. It’s really important to see the successes as well, the glass half full perspective, and to move onwards and upwards.
Around Australia, and internationally, efforts to improve the management of marine biodiversity are being hindered by perceptions that such efforts will have negative impacts on local communities, especially fishers. But available evidence suggests that well managed ecosystems can have far greater long-term economic and social benefits than over-exploited and unprotected systems.
We are grateful to Laurence for sharing his time and expertise with us and the ACRS community.
