Coral Health Depends Reef Ecosystem Management

Coral Health Depends Reef Ecosystem Management

October 2007

 Coral reefs suffer when the 
lands above them are disturbed, finds new research by scientists from 
Hawaii to Australia. Clearcut logging, farming and development lead to 
erosion and runoff that kills corals, making it just as important to 
manage the land above reefs as it is to protect them from overfishing, the 
scientists confirmed. 
Over six years, the researchers studied the connection between watersheds 
and adjacent coral reefs on three Micronesian islands - Palau, Guam and 
Pohnpei. The "Watersheds and Coral Reefs" study published in the current 
issue of "BioScience" magazine describes how multiple threats to reefs 
combine with lethal results. 
"It is clear that sustaining our coral reefs depends on how well we manage 
human impacts from the mountains to the sea," said Willy Kostka, a 
co-author of the study and director of the Micronesia Conservation Trust. 
"The centuries-old way of managing reefs in Pacific islands recognizes 
that it is not the coral reefs and watersheds that can be managed, but 
rather the human activities affecting these ecosystems," said Kostka. "If 
we provide care and respect to our reefs, they will provide for us." 
Sedimentation and runoff from activities on land are among the biggest 
threats to nearby reefs and are interfering with other marine conservation 
efforts, such as no fishing zones.

River runoff sends mud into the ocean, where it is compacted around reefs. 
Algae can outgrow corals to form a mat that traps the mud and prevents 
coral recruitment. When overfishing occurs, removal of plant-eating fish 
means algae growth can no longer be controlled, and the reefs are 
suffocated. 
Actions taken by the three Pacific island communities to restore reef 
health focused on managing entire ecosystems from hilltop to sea floor. 
Communities relocated crops from upland rainforests to lowland areas, 
restored vegetation in watershed areas to control erosion, halted the 
clearing of mangroves, and established a continuous protected area from 
the top of the watershed to the reef. 
One community is also considering a temporary ban on catches of 
plant-eating fish. 
Fouha Bay, the study site in Guam, is surrounded by steep hills that deer 
and pig hunters often burn to clear vegetation, which accelerates erosion 
rates. The bay has high levels of sedimentation that are suffocating the 
reefs. 
Data taken along the southern side of the bay in 1978 and again in 2003 
showed a clear loss of coral species and coral cover over time that 
appears to be due to watershed discharges. 
The study's conclusion that coral reefs and other coastal marine 
ecosystems extend into adjacent watersheds leads the authors to the 
recommendation that they should be managed as an integrated unit. 
"Marine protected areas often will miss their targets of resource 
protection unless terrestrial protected areas are established and 
enforced," they write. 
Traditional ways of managing human interactions with the reef are still 
effective in modern times, says the study, citing Palau's Marine 
Protection Act of 1994 as an example of new legislation for no-take areas 
based on traditional knowledge of spawning sites. 

On the Enipein watershed on the Micronesian island of Pohnpei, the 
watershed was located above a marine protected area that was struggling to 
recover coral and fish populations after clearing of an upland rainforest 
for cash crops resulted in extensive erosion and sediment deposition on 
the reef. 
Findings from the Enipein watershed research were shared with local 
chiefs, who decided to create a continuous protected area that begins in 
the upland rainforest and extends through the mangroves and out to the 
reef. 
Efforts to switch from upland farming to lowland cultivation have been 
successful, as have been measures to reduce erosion and to protect coastal 
mangroves. 
"Pohnpei, Palau and Guam boast some of the best examples of what can 
happen when local communities understand their vested interest in 
nearshore ocean resources and take action to preserve them," said lead 
author Dr. Robert Richmond of the University of Hawaii's Kewalo Marine 
Laboratory in Honolulu. 
"Reefs are in decline worldwide," he said, "and the Pacific islands of 
Micronesia are showing us how modern science and traditional knowledge can 
be combined to reverse that trend. 
Co-author Noah Idechong, vice speaker of the House of Delegates for the 
7th Palau National Congress, says people know what is occurring but too 
often lack the political will to make the needed changes that will protect 
reefs. 
"From Pacific islands to the Western world, we know what is threatening 
our reefs and how to remedy those problems, but policy and political will 
are lagging behind available science," Idechong said. 
"Policymakers often choose inactivity rather than subscribing to the 
precautionary principle," he said. "This approach undermines our ability 
to leave a sound environmental legacy for future generations." 
Hawaii fisherman Isaac Harp, who did not participate in the study, said, 
"When foreign land and natural resource management strategies replaced 
Hawaii's indigenous strategies, rapid degradation of Hawaii's inland and 
coastal environments began. As indigenous island peoples across 'Pasifika' 
and beyond understand, when you mismanage your inland environments, 
negative effects will trickle down and degrade your coastal environments." 

"Sometimes we need to move forward by going backward, in this case by 
recognizing the value of and adopting indigenous management strategies," 
said Harp. "A thousand years of knowledge is better than a hundred years 
of assumptions." 
Western governments should follow the lead of traditional societies and 
consider granting near-shore and off-shore leases for community 
conservation, just as they do for fish cages and oil drilling, the authors 
propose. 
If coral reef resources are not better protected from land-based impacts, 
the authors warn, they will continue to decline. 

---