As we come to the end of another year I hope it finds you all well. As a Global Network we have a few things to be thankful for this past year. Many regions were provided with grant funds (NFWF- NOAA) to conduct various training and monitoring activities. We will be hearing from a few regions in this issue on their progress and expectations from these activities.
As many will recall we had set a few goals for SocMon at our Global Coordination meeting last year. One of our goals was to improve or increase capacity building via improved sustainable financing and building stronger regional networks and partnerships. Another important goal was to move towards integrated monitoring for improved decision and policymaking at community, regional and national scales. This latter goal a lofty one and requires us to think about new partnerships including sitting at the table with our biophysical colleagues who are engaged in coral reef and coastal ecosystem monitoring. Integrated research that combines the human and ecological should lead to outcomes that benefit the resources as well as the people who depend on them. To this end the Caribbean GCRMN are working on implementing this approach in the region. We encourage all to reconnect with GCRMN partners in your respective regions. In this issue we provide stories from the Gulf of Mannar to Guam as well as Dominica and Honduras.