THE REEF-WORLD FOUNDATION. ICRI membership application GM30 Pattaya, Thailand 1 Dec 2015 Chloë Harvey

Transcription

1 THE REEF-WORLD FOUNDATION ICRI membership application GM30 Pattaya, Thailand 1 Dec 2015 Chloë Harvey

2 ABOUT US Mission "To inspire and empower people to act in conserving and sustainably developing coastal resources, particularly coral reefs and related ecosystems. Objectives To promote the wise use of natural resources, particularly coral reefs and related tropical coastal resources, for the benefit of local community, potential visitors, visitors and future generations. To promote the advancement of education about natural resources, coral reefs, related ecosystems and their conservation.

3 HISTORY AND PROJECTS 1997 Anne Miller encouraged tourists to join local conservation activities with the PMBC (K. Niphon Phongsuwan and Dr. Hansa Chansang) 1999 Registered as a UK Charitable Trust - community based educational and monitoring programmes 2000 UNEP-COBSEA support educational Thai-English booklet development 2004 COBSEA initiated Green Fins in Thailand Reef- World key link to the diving industry

4 HISTORY AND PROJECTS 2008 UNEP-COBSEA funded greenfins.net = development of the management and monitoring systems 2009 UNEP / RSGF / others supported testing application in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines; refined systems and proved replicability 2013 MFF Introduction to Maldives and Vietnam Reef-World participates in the UNEP-Regional Seas Global Coral Reef Partnership, development of Toolbox and Handbooks, upgraded to a CIO

5 GREEN FINS A proven approach for applying best practice to manage an environmentally sustainable diving and snorkelling industry. Reef-World is UNEP s lead technical partner for Green Fins. Active in 6 countries, 20 dive destinations, over 400 dive and snorkel centre members Three main elements: 1. Certification of dive centre operations based on a code of conduct and a robust assessment system; 2. Support towards developing or strengthening implementation of relevant regulatory frameworks; and 3. Strategic outreach to dive centres and their customers as well as government partners. Public private partnership

6 CAPACITY BUILDING Reef-World delivers tailored capacity building interventions to the diving industry as well as local and national authorities for Green Fins implementation 1. Provision of and training in the use of guidance materials and tools covering Green Fins implementation

7 2. Learning and outreach

8 3. Policy dialogue Supporting countries to meet international environmental commitments Enhance efforts in relations to tourism industry management Support strengthening of national policy frameworks

9 Review Certification of dive centre operations based on a code of conduct and a robust annual assessment and review system. Assessment data is stored on a secure database and used for ongoing project management review. Ecological impact assessments Fig 2. Comparison of the rates of reef contact made by recreational scuba divers (n=100) from low Green Fins compliance diver operators versus high Green Fins compliance dive operators (>60 dive centres) Roche et al. (2015) (Manuscript submitted for publication) Fig 1. Mean dive centre assessment scores (weighted) for Moalboal from assessments over three year of Green Fins implementation (2012), n = 17, error bars represent SE.

10 Science and monitoring The Green Fins code of conduct promotes active participation in marine monitoring. Green Fins provides relevant authorities with access to a network of divers for the promotion of citizen science monitoring programmes.

11 Integrated management Broker for integrated management Embodies an ecosystem approach Strategic local solutions and outreach and education campaigns Strengthening curriculum with environmental content

12 Next Steps Continued development and implementation of Green Fins (locally focussed with international perspective) Enhancing the long-term sustainability and replicability of Green Fins Environmental and economic impact assessments Building a long-term sustainability model Environmental mainstreaming in diver training and other business operations Implement targeted communication and outreach strategies to encourage sustainable consumption through increased consumer awareness

13 Why ICRI? Ensure that our development and implementation is informed by sound science and policy Benefit from the experience of the ICRI members Disseminate the outcomes of ICRI (and other international initiatives and conventions) to key environmental champions in the public and private sectors Support reporting on contributions made through Green Fins implementation to international environmental commitments Platform to link our work to the international arena, to promote successes and share lessons

14 THANK YOU