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Indicators of Coral Reef Health - Integrating Views of the Community

Elizabeth Dinsdale and Mark Fenton

James Cook University, TOWNSVILLE, AUSTRALIA

Theme: TH4

Involvement of the community in resource management enhances the outcomes of conservation strategies. One area of resource management that has not included community participation is the selection of performance indicators to access the effectiveness of management strategies. The benefits of integrating the community’s views when selecting performance indicators are: 1) increasing community involvement in resource management, 2) increasing community awareness of changes occurring in the environment, and 3) identifying the community’s views of success. Our research uses anchor damage occurring on coral reefs as a model for identifying performance indicators. Coral reefs that differ in boating activity were photographed and presented to people for their judgement. People were asked to judge the health of each coral reef and describe the variables used to make their judgements. Variables identified by people were assessed for scientific, policy and measurability qualities to select the most relevant and cost-effective performance indicators. Identifying variables in the coral reef environment that are important to people, to act as performance indicators, may further increase community support and action for conservation strategies.