Please put your thinking caps on

Phil Dustan dustanp at cofc.edu
Fri May 24 07:59:39 EDT 2002


Hi Coral Listers,

I just wanted to call everyone's attention to the upcoming World Summit on
Sustainable Development to be held in Johannesburg South Africa, August
26-Sept 4. The Chairman's text for Negotiation (which is the basis for
further negotiations at a ministerial level preparatory meeting in Bali next
week) (www.johannesburgsummit.org/index.html) contains an outline of issues
that will be raised at the summit. The text references sustainable
development in the seas but refers to coral reefs in only two places!
It seems to me that reefs deserve more attention in the grand scheme of
things at a world summit focusing on sustainability. The upcoming meetings
in Mexico and Jakarta present opportunities to become more involved with
ICRI and ICRAN to work towards getting reefs a bit more presence at WSSD.
The science community has an opportunity and an obligation to join in the
process and begin to speak with a louder voice on the relationship of
environmental sustainability with coral reef health and the vitality of
seas.
Many of us have witnessed firsthand the destruction of reefs around the
world. We know their importance to the ecological sustainability of the
oceans. And many of us have ideas about how to contribute towards their
conservation.
I'd like to urge the scientific community to put some thought into this and
offer suggestions for the WSSD Agenda that can be discussed at the upcoming
ICRI Regional Workshops in Jakarta and Cancun. We might not be able to
actually go to the meetings but I think we could use the coral-list as a
forum for offering suggestions and making our collective voices heard.
Further details about the Cancun meeting will be posted on the ICRI,
UNEP-CAR/RCU and CONANP websites at www.icriforum.org, www.cep.unep.org and
www.conanp.gob.mx.

PLEASE NOTE NEW EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip Dustan
Department of Biology
College of Charleston
Charleston SC 29424
dustanp at cofc.edu
www.cofc.edu/~coral/corallab.htm
(843) 953-8086
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