[Coral-List] Coral list- Assessing reef health through fish ID

[Roberto f Pott]

Hi Gus,

I agree with the previous comments, but I must share Healthy Reefs for Healthy People's (HRI) experience in Belize through volunteers working with Blue Ventures.  While HRI prefers skilled field biologist to collect reef fish data, it was pleasantly surprised when Blue Venture's volunteers participated in training and turned out to be superb data collector and excelled in training.  It should be noted that the volunteer all had university degrees, but HRI also hosted community researchers recommended by TIDE (Toledo Institute for Development and Environment).  These researcher performed above and beyond but I am sure TIDE hand picked these people based on the volunteers' potential to do technical work.

Without being too ambitious, I encourage you to keep an open mind when developing programs in developing countries.  Plus building local capacity has a multiplying and lasting effect.

HRI will release the report card for the Mesoamerican Reef next month and it is through partnership with local NGO's and in collaboration with community researchers and government agencies.

Roberto Pott (MEM)
Belize Coordinator & Social Scientist
Healthy Reef for Healthy People


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> On Mar 19, 2015, at 10:00 AM, coral-list-request at coral.aoml.noaa.gov wrote:
> 
> Coral-List] Assessing reef health through fish ID