ReefBase Pacific: Strengthening Information Access and Dissemination in Support of Effective Coral Reef Conservation and Management

Duration: January 2006 – December 2008

Funding: AFD, UNF

Partners: International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN), Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), University of the South Pacific (USP), École pratique des hautes etudes (EPHE), South Pacific Environment Program (SPREP)

Objectives
The ReefBase Pacific project will make an important contribution to realisation of the objectives of AFD’s Regional Initiative For The Protection And Management Of Coral Reefs In The South Pacific (CRISP) by:

• Promoting a holistic approach to the protection and management of coral reefs (considering not only ecological, but also social and economical information requirements) by applying the lessons learned from previous and existing activities by ICRAN, ReefBase, GCRMN, and regional partners.


• Mobilizing, standardizing, integrating, disseminating, and promoting the extensive data-, information-, and knowledge-bases currently present, but underutilized, in the South Pacific nations and territories.


• Increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of targeted research, by assembling and rationalizing the information needed to build effectively on previous and existing work.


• Providing a vehicle for dissemination of information for coral reef initiatives.

In order to make these contributions effectively, the proposed project has set the following general objectives (in logical order):

• To develop an active, collaborative, region-wide network of coral reef professionals currently involved in the research, conservation, and management of coral reef resources in the South Pacific, who effectively and efficiently share and discuss data, information, issues, and solutions.


• To use the region-wide network to mobilize an unprecedented knowledge-base on coral reef resources and their monitoring, conservation and management in the Pacific, using established methodologies and formats developed by ReefBase, GCRMN, and ICRAN.


• To utilize the network and knowledge-base to create an effective, easily accessible information system which can provide managers, researchers, and reef users with instant access to the wealth of existing and new information relevant to the management and sustainable use of coral reefs in the Pacific.


• To widen the scope, impact, efficiency and effectiveness of current coral reef management and conservation activities, through the development of a network of professionals in Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, who communicate and share information.

The project will develop close collaborations with existing information systems and initiatives and seek to coordinate and interlink them together in ReefBase Pacific by jointly developing, disseminating, and promoting relevant, high quality information products for specific, targeted beneficiaries (researchers, managers, policymakers, educators, and the media).