A review of monitoring,conservation and management of global coral reefs

This paper reviewed the outcome of global coral reef monitoring and the new strategy for global coral reef conservation and management.Since late 1980's,there has been a growing awareness of the need to conserve coral reefs,and many actions ware taken by United Nations,governments,and scientists.One of the most important actions is the setting up of a global coral reef monitoring system,including Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network(GCRMN),Reef Check,and Reef Base,which was put into effect in 1997.This series of actions has launched a new era of coordinated scientific inquiry into the status and improved management of the world's coral reefs.The status reports of coral reefs over the world published by GCRMN every other year showed that though people all over the world have greatly enhanced the awareness about the problems coral reefs have been facing and actions are being taken to conserve them,global coral reefs are still declining due to direct human activities and global climate changes.The impact of global changes may be greater than that of human activities,but the future situation is quite uncertain.Up to 2004,20% of the global coral reefs have been destroyed,and other 50% at critical stage and threatened stage may be destroyed in 10—20 years and in 20—40 years respectively if no urgent management action will be taken.World Atlas of Coral Reefs provides a summary of what we know about the geographic distribution and status of coral reefs as well as a new,revised global estimate of the total area of worldwide coral reefs.New management strategy for global coral reefs includes paying more attention to the impact of global changes and its uncertainty,taking reef resilience,key functional group and recruitment ability as focus of reef management,and establishing more and larger no-take areas in marine protection areas.China is one of important coral reef countries in the world,and ought to make a greater contribution to global coral reef conservation.