10TH ANNIVERSARY ICRI MEETING HELD IN THE SEYCHELLES

From: Reefcheck, April 2005

The 10th anniversary meeting of the International Coral Reef Initiative was held from April 25–27, 2005 in Mahé, The Seychelles. The meeting was co-chaired by Rolph Payet of the Seychelles and John Roberts of the United Kingdom. Seventy-five participants, including three new members, attended the meeting. RC Executive Director, Gregor Hodgson, represented Reef Check. The meeting produced a number of decisions, including one to have GCRMN do a post-tsunami follow-up to their Status of Coral Reefs of the World report. A draft resolution on reef rehabilitation was also proposed (see below). To view a summary of the meeting, click here.

ICRI Meeting Proposes Resolution on Artificial Reef Restoration and Rehabilitation
One of the outcomes of the ICRI meeting was a draft resolution on reef restoration. Various commercial and non-commercial organizations have proposed a range of ‘engineering’ techniques as reef reconstruction or rehabilitation techniques, including:
- A mechanism using wire frames through which electricity is passed to accrete calcium carbonate and accelerate the growth of transplanted corals;
- Installation of artificial reefs, including concrete structures; and
- Mechanisms for re-cementing and re-gluing corals and other organisms to the substratum.

These techniques have recently been brought to the forefront due to reef damage from the 2004 tsunami. The following is an excerpt from the proposal, click here to read the full resolution that was adopted by ICRI this month:

"The proponents of this Resolution, the ICRI Operational Units, CORDIO, GCRMN, ICRAN and Reef Check, while acknowledging that some innovative and new approaches to coral reef conservation and management may have limited applications, are concerned that there have been insufficient peer-reviewed, long-term scientific studies of reef rehabilitation using these and other techniques and that there have been few cost-benefit analyses to assess effectiveness of the methods over natural recovery processes. The available evidence suggests that some of these techniques may be useful in specialized cases, but have limited or no application and value for large-scale coral reef rehabilitation. In addition to effectiveness considerations, construction of any engineered structure on a coral reef must be evaluated against any potential environmental damage caused during construction or later degradation."