Damage and recovery of four Philippine corals from short-term sediment burial

Recovery of corals after full burial with littoral sediment (16% silt, 46% fine sand and 38% coarse sand, 28% CaC03) was monitored in 2 field experiments at the reefs off Lucero, Bolinao (Pangasinan, NW Philippines), from April to May 1996. In the first experiment at 2 m depth, Porites was buried for 0, 6, 20 and 68 h; a second experiment was done at 5 m depth and 4 common taxa (Porites, Galaxea, Heliopora and Acropora) were buried for 20 h. At 2 m depth, Porites was not affected by 6 h burial compared to the controls that were not buried. Increasing burial time had increasingly more serious effects. Burial for 20 h resulted in increased discoloration of the coral tissue. After 68 h of burial, up to 90% of the tissue bleached in the first days. About 50% of this tissue disappeared subsequently and bare coral skeleton became exposed or were covered with algae. After a few weeks, however, recovery took place: the bare areas were recolonized from surrounding surviving tissue or from highly retracted polyps in the affected area. In the corals that had been buried for 20 h no more significant differences from the controls were observed after 3 wk. For those that were buried for 68 h, this was the case after 4 wk. At 5 m depth, all Acropora died after the 20 h burial treatment, but the other taxa recovered In a comparable way to the Porites in the first experiment at 2 m depth. It is concluded that complete burial will cause considerable whole-colony mortality in at least Acropora, and thus may result in a permanent loss of coral taxa from reefs that are subject to such intense sedimentation events. Less sensitive taxa incur substantial damage but significant recovery was observed after a month

Institutionalising Adaptive Management: Creating a Culture of Learning in New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service

‘Learn by doing’ is the mantra of adaptive management. Organisations that undertake conservation management are often challenged by high levels of uncertainty and a multiplicity of competing priorities leading to more doing than learning. Adaptive management provides a sound approach for these organisations to effectively manage uncertainty and ambiguity. However, institutional characteristics can impede the development of a learning culture and thus the uptake of adaptive management. Following on from a major review of the organisation's performance, the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), responsible for managing over 6,5000,000 ha and over 750 protected areas, embarked on an ambitious program to introduce a performance management program based on adaptive management principles and to institutionalise it so that it became an indelible part of the way NPWS undertakes conservation. Through the combination of an adaptive management framework, a comprehensive performance evaluation program and set of common denominators defining the services provided in the organisation, NPWS has evolved its approach to ensure maximum penetration and uptake of the adaptive management ethos, by actively influencing key institutional facets such as policy, planning regimes, programs, projects and systems to link and align them, and ultimately to help close the adaptive management loop. While adaptive management is becoming normalised in NPWS, future efforts will be geared towards making the institutionalisation of adaptive management more robust and permanent

A framework of lessons learned from community-based marine reserves and its effectiveness in guiding a new coastal management initiative in the Philippines

Community-based coastal resource management has been widely applied within the Philippines. However, small-scale community-based reserves are often inefficient owing to management inadequacies arising because of a lack of local support or enforcement or poor design. Because there are many potential pitfalls during the establishment of even small community-based reserves, it is important for coastal managers, communities, and facilitating institutions to have access to a summary of the key factors for success. Reviewing relevant literature, we present a framework of lessons learned during the establishment of protected areas, mainly in the Philippines. The framework contains summary guidance on the importance of (1) an island location, (2) small community population size, (3) minimal effect of land-based development, (4) application of a bottom-up approach, (5) an external facilitating institution, (6) acquisition of title, (7) use of a scientific information database, (8) stakeholder involvement, (9) the establishment of legislation, (10) community empowerment, (11) alternative livelihood schemes, (12) surveillance, (13) tangible management results, (14) continued involvement of external groups after reserve establishment, and (15) small-scale project expansion. These framework components guided the establishment of a community-based protected area at Danjugan Island, Negros Occidental, Philippines. This case study showed that the framework was a useful guide that led to establishing and implementing a community-based marine reserve. Evaluation of the reserve using standard criteria developed for the Philippines shows that the Danjugan Island protected area can be considered successful and sustainable. At Danjugan Island, all of the lessons synthesized in the framework were important and should be considered elsewhere, even for relatively small projects. As shown in previous projects in the Philippines, local involvement and stewardship of the protected area appeared particularly important for its successful implementation. The involvement of external organizations also seemed to have a key role in the success of the Danjugan Island project by guiding local decision-makers in the sociobiological principles of establishing protected areas. However, the relative importance of each component of the framework will vary between coastal management initiatives both within the Philippines and across the wider Asian region