Reef Conservation UK (RCUK)
Added to website: 12 January 2004
Reef Conservation UK (RCUK) was formed to promote multidisciplinary conservation, public awareness and education about coral reefs, as well as to ensure that all reef related activities are conducted in a responsible manner. RCUK’s 2003 meeting was held on the 6 December at the Zoological Society of London. Students, researchers and professionals, from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines were invited to give presentations and display posters based on individual or organisation work and interest.
CCC’s Caribbean Marine Science Co-ordinator, Ryan Walker, presented a poster entitled ‘The Value of Volunteers: A Review of the Role of British Based Volunteer NGO’s in the Establishment of Coral Reef Marine Protected Areas’.
Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s) are increasingly becoming established to protect endangered marine ecosystems, particularly coral reefs and their biodiversity. For decision makers to be able to establish MPAs sound and comprehensive baseline data must be available. Numerous volunteer based conservation groups demonstrate the importance of utilising non-specialist volunteer researchers in this effort.
In assessing this importance, CCC reviewed all available literature documenting such work. A total of nine MPAs were gazetted by three NGO’s in five nations in tropical waters. These include: four Marine Reserves/Parks, in Tanzania, Belize and the Philippines; four National Marine Parks (NMP’s) in Indonesia, Belize and Mozambique and one UNESCO World Heritage site in Belize. In total 5,250.4 km 2 of coral reefs and associated marine habitats have been established as protected area since 1995. Volunteer labour mainly consisted of baseline marine plot-less belt transect surveys undertaken using a variety of methods to assess marine biodiversity. In some cases subsistence marine resource utilisation assessments and surveys were also carried out. Capacity building and training of local counterparts was also a focus in most cases playing an important role in the empowerment of local people, and installing increased environmental awareness for the inhabitants and users of such MPA’s.
