[Coral-List] Value of Hawaiian Reefs-why cant we all just get along? (Bastiaan V)

[Helder Perez]

What's the point of winning when Honor is set aside?

Bastiaan, although your proposed methodology seems to be interesting,
effective even, we can't just trade our values for the sake of money and
business. What's the point of risking our lives for a better planet if
we're feeding the society with wrong ideas? Our fight for coral reefs
(rainforests, pandas, penguins, endemic iguanas, and almost everything
natural) should never compromise the foundations of our humanity.

Just my two centavos on the matter.

Cheers,

Helder I. Pérez
Bay Islands Foundation
Honduras



On 24 November 2011 10:48, Bastiaan Vermonden
<bastiaan.vermonden at gmail.com>wrote:

> Dear Steve,
>
> Thanks for your insights I appreciate all advice and input. About those
> disheartening realities, those are exactly the reason why I devised this
> strategy.
>
> With this strategy improving the reef should increase tourism demand and
> therefore be good for business. There is no need to think or care about
> future generations.
>
> Also I wanted to use a measurement which can be used to show small
> improvements so that even small steps can be rewarded. For example
> currently if you want to become a top diving destination you either have to
> have a great reputation or have something really amazing. However if you
> look on my map small differences can alter consumption decisions. So this
> means that if a country, marine park etc realizes a small increase in fish
> biomass it might already mean they are better than their neighbor and thus
> result in more tourism demand.
>
> This competition is the most important aspect of my idea. I think that
> competition can make people do crazy but also amazing things. For example
> lets look at sports, why do people for example train their whole life to
> run faster and faster to win the Olympics?
>
> If you look at it rationally it is utterly ridiculous (I don't mean to
> offend anyone) but it is well harnessed competitive drive. The tools they
> use to create that competition are races where individuals measure
> themselves to their nearest competitors and a stopwatch to compare their
> times to the fastest running time ever achieved either in the region,
> nationally at college level or at olympic level or whatever.
>
> Also an olympic runner does not immediately start competing with the best,
> first he starts competing with those who are closest to his abilities and
> he will work/run his way to the top. Most reefs are now heavily degraded so
> pretty much everyone would start in the "little leagues" Maybe its a bit
> crude but for example if we have an obese person in a running race we don't
> expect him/her to win but if it is against only other obese people then
> that changes everything.
>
> So I believe that if we give destinations the tools to compete they will do
> so, and instead of competing for a gold metal and honor they will compete
> for money and business.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRxs379Vq_k&feature=related
>
> Bastiaan
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