[Coral-List] The long view is for the Undead: reefs ARE in trouble today

[clarionreef at aol.com]

There is a common ground to which we can focus;
 Gandhi said...."How can I succeed in a thousand villages? This is the argument that pride gives us.
Start with the wisdom that if you fix yourself up in a single village and suceed, the rest will follow."
      Inherent in his wisdom is a mandate...a requirement  to deal with fisherfolk ie. poor folks near the reefs as important people and not just integers in a top-down formula to be 'played and gamed' in some Western world equation of manipulation.
         You cannot succeed in  village for long as a phoney, self serving group...you have to plant yourself, commit and followthru. The idea is to generate support thru respect and create a multiplier effect with something so worthwhile that other villages will want to steal it.
          Converting fisherman to using nets for example instead of cyanide is an old story....but one yet to be concluded as it was usurped by the top-down primma donnas in the NGO game.
Fisherman became bit players in a large financial drama that so many 'reef people' followed [ MAC] instead of centerpieces in the fight to save coral reef systems....one zone at a time. 
This in turn can create a multiplier effect and before long a critical mass of local support can cascade and displace the use of poisons to collect fish. 
This victory...in turn provides us entry as w/ the Trojan horse syndrome and before you know it, reef surveying, eco-tourism, MPA staffing, environmental education and sustainable fishing start to gain traction.
       
 Returning to old, discarded wisdom can work...and show the way and light candles in many places.
                Steve
 
Steve Robinson
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: JKoven at aol.com
To: rgrigg at soest.hawaii.edu; lesk at bu.edu; coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Sent: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 17:49:43 EST
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] The long view is for the Undead: reefs ARE in trouble today


 The people who live in these underpopulated areas are still trying to earn a 
living...often by fishing their own reefs and selling to those who have 
depleted their own fisheries and willing to pay the price.

Yes, over-population is at the base of many world problems but it is a sticky 
issue, at once cultural, ethnic and religious.  Not exactly one to be solved 
by reef scientists.  Perhaps women's education in general and in reproductive 
rights are the answers?  Women want better lives for their children, after 
they've been fed, saved from curable infectious diseases, and educated....and 
who 
is to determine what that better life is?  Is it what they perceive as the 
lives that other children in the world have, including yours? 

Joan Koven
Astrolabe, Inc.

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