27th ICRI General Meeting

The first General Meeting under the Australia-Belize Secretariat was held from the 16-19 July 2012 in Cairns, Australia. Australia and the UNEP provided travel support to a number of delegates therefore enabling their participation in the meeting. A total of 50 delegates from 24 countries attended (list of participants).

Minutes of the meeting (PDF File)

New Members

The ICRI Membership welcomed two new Members:

• Blue Ventures
• Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI)

Ad Hoc Committees

It was decided that the Ad Hoc committee on Enforcement & Investigation, and the Ad Hoc committee on Economic Valuation of Coral Reef Ecosystems will both be continued and revived, with the possibility of new Chair(s) and Members being appointed. New Terms of Reference (ToRs) will be developed out-of-session and will be presented to the ICRI membership at ICRI GM28. Motions were adopted to that effect (see below). The Ad Hoc Committee on the lionfish invasion in the Caribbean (or Regional Lionfish Committee, RLC) remains active; its future directions were discussed at the meeting and include the possibility of extending its work to all marine invasive species in the area. The issue of dedicated funding was also briefly discussed without resolution. The RLC will remain under the ICRI flag for now, but modalities for embedding lionfish management efforts in existing institutions within the Caribbean will be discussed at GM28. Revised Terms of Reference for the RLC will also be presented then.

Resolutions

Two resolutions were adopted:

• resolution on the activities of the Ad Hoc Committee on Economic Valuation (PDF File)
• resolution on the activities of the Ad Hoc Committee on Enforcement & Investigation (PDF File)

These two resolutions called for ICRI members to note the continuation of these two committees' and consider whether members wish to play a role in their activities.

Management Effectiveness Day

Congruent with on the hosting themes of the joint Australia-Belize Secretariat, a full day of the 27th General Meeting was devoted to the theme of Management Effectiveness Assessment for coral reef and related systems.

The workshop inspected several approaches to undertaking an assessment of management effectiveness and focussed on the various types of assessments that can be undertaken and how the results of these assessments are being used.

Following the workshop, a resolution was adopted encouraging ICRI members to conduct management effectiveness assessments which engage indigenous and local communities, as well as other stakeholders, and to use the results to adapt and improve management action. The resolution also encourages members to report on these assessments and to contribute to global datasets on management effectiveness. Download the Resolution on Assessing the Effectiveness of Marine Protected Area Management (PDF File).

Workshop page: http://www.icriforum.org/ICRIGM27-ME-Workshop

Networks

A side meeting was held to discuss the new directions of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN). The outcomes of these discussions were reported on the last day of the meeting, and included:

• The need for GCRMN to clarify the directions it is taking, through a revised concept note addressing comments raised.
• More concerted efforts in engaging GRCMN nodes and regional networks or organisations (such as UNEP's Regional Seas), including through enhanced communication with past GCRMN contributors and collaborators in all regions and in particular where existing regional structures are strong (i.e. East Asia and Pacific).
• Enhanced links between ecological, social and economic processes, and continued discussions with SocMON and other partners to look at practical and meaningful ways to integrate GCRMN activities.
• Increased funding needed achieve the above, as well an efforts and input from all partners.

Call to Action, Organisation & Management Procedures

The work to 'refresh' ICRI's Call to Action and its organisation and management procedures will be undertaken inter-sessionnally leading to the next General Meeting in 2013; results of these interessional discussions will be presented at GM28.

International Tropical Marine Ecosystems Management Symposiums (ITMEMS)

A summary of outcomes of the International Coral Reef Symposium 2012 was presented. It was clear from this summary that the ICRS series has evolved to be more management-focussed than in the past. This, combined with the fact that the international conference calendar on marine management is nowadays much more filled that it was at the time when ITMEMS was launched, poses the question of the future relevance of ITMEMS. ICRI Members will discuss this topic further at GM28.

Images from the Meeting

Click the above image to view the entire gallery.

Agenda, working documents and presentations

• Final Agenda (PDF File)
• List of participants (PDF File)