Best Managed Reef Award 2001
Added to website: 01 January 2001
A unique Anglo-Filipino partnership has received a national award for the Best Managed Coral Reef for its pioneering conservation work in the Philippines.
At an awards ceremony in Manila on Friday 25 January, UK-based Coral Cay Conservation (CCC) and the Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation, Inc. were praised for their “exemplary collaborative conservation efforts” in protecting the exceptionally-rich coral reef that surrounds Danjugan Island off the coast of Negros Occidental in the Philippines.
The award was made by the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Department of Agriculture, and PhilReefs.
Since 1995, over 2,500 CCC volunteers have joined conservation projects in the Philippines. Following intensive training programmes in scuba diving and marine survey techniques, volunteers have gathered crucial information on the status of coral reefs in the region. Their efforts played a key part in the declaration of Danjugan as a National Marine Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary in February 2000.
The new award also recognises the invaluable collaborative partnership and support of the local fishing community of Bulata without whose involvement Danjugan Island and its spectacular coral reef might never have been saved.
