PANEL ONE:

Economic Valuation of Coral Reefs: Implications for Sustainable Use

Contents

Time Table

Guideline Questions for Panelists

Contents

In recent years economic valuation of biological resources has gained increasing importance in the policy formation process. Economic valuation is a powerful tool which helps to identify the level of protection which is most adequate from a macro-economic point of view, thus assisting in the formulation of rational conservation policies. Moreover, the results of economic valuation studies are of considerable strategic use in the policy making process because they provide convincing economic arguments which justify protection goals as compared to exploitation goals.

Panel 1 explores the potentials and constraints of applying economic valuation methods to coral reef resources in three sections: The first section shows how the economic value of coral reefs can be assessed. The other two sections elaborate on two of the most important uses of coral reefs and coastal ecosystems: fisheries and tourism.

By way of introduction, the first section starts with an overview of the methods applied in economic valuation, to allow coral reef experts without economic background to get familiar with this instrument. The following contribution exemplifies the application of economic valuation methods to marine resources, taking Mauritius as an example. The third presentation shows how the benefits of exploitative uses of coral reefs can be economically assessed. This presentation uses trade with aquarium fish and corals in Mozambique as an example and takes the distribution of benefits among different stake holders into account. The third contribution elaborates on the economic impact of the damage occurred during the 1998 coral bleaching event in Tanzania and discusses possible recovery measures.

The first contribution of the second section shows how to obtain marine biological data, which are required as input for the application of economic valuation techniques. The contribution compares the effects of two different conservation measures on the evolution of fish stocks. The second presentation shows how socio-economic consequences of marine conservation efforts can be assessed by focusing on the availability of fish for consumption in rural households.

Focusing on the fast growing tourism industry, the third section discusses how the inherent economic value of coral reefs can be turned into an income source and, at the same time, create incentives for protection. The first paper deals with the tourists themselves and analyses the ecological consciousness of dive tourists with respect to the value and fragility of coral reefs. The second and the third contribution deal with a small-scale and a large-scale tourism enterprise, respectively. The second presentation analyses how a privately sustained marine protected area can create potentials for small scale ecotourism and the third elaborates on the potentials of mass tourism. These contributions will help to identify the conditions under which tourism can enhance conservation of coral reefs and associated ecosystems.

Time Table

Monday, 19^th June

TIME	Presenter	Country	Title of Presentation
Economic Valuation
10:30 – 10:45	Hassan, Zien-Elabdin	Germany /Sudan	Economic Importance of Coral Reefs: Methodological Issues
10:45 – 11:05	Vogt, Helge Peter	U. K.	The economic importance of coral reefs in Mauritius.
11:05 – 11:20	Motta, Helena	Mozambique	*Trade in Coral Reef and Aquaculture in Mozambique
11:20 – 11:50	Muhando, Christopher	Tanzania	Assessment of the extent of damage, socio-economic effects, mitigation and recovery of coral reefs in Tanzania.
11.50 – 12:20 DISCUSSION
12.20 – 13:30 LUNCH
Sustainable Use: Fisheries
13:30 – 13:45	Mc-Clanahan/Mangi, Tim S.	Kenya	Comparison of closed area and beach seines exclusion on coral reef fish
13:45 – 14:00	Malleret-King, Delphine	France	Socio-economic benefits and sustainability of marine protected areas (MPAs) as coral reef fisheries.
14:00 – 14.20 DISCUSSION
Sustainable Use: Tourism
14:20 – 14:35	Piskurek, Nicole	Germany	Dive tourism in coral reefs – impacts and conditions for sustainability: a case study from Desa Pemuteran (Bali/Indonesia).
14:35 – 14:50	Riedmiller, Sibylle	Tanzania	*Ecotourism in a private Marine Protected Area /Chumbe, Tanzania
14:50 – 15:05	Iwand, Wolf .M.	Germany /TUI	Supporting biodiversity – take the benefit of tourism into account!
15:05 – 15:35 DISCUSSION
15:35 – 16:00 SUMMARY AND SUGGESTIONS
16:00 – 16:30 COFFEE BREAK
* Title to be confirmed by the author

Guideline Questions for Panelists

· Has the study you present been requested/supported by a decision-making body (e.g. government, municipality, etc.) for the purposes of taking certain actions on the use and conservation of CRs.

· If not; then by whom, and for what purposes have you carried out the work.

· Have you made contacts with such bodies (point 1), or presented to them the results of the work? If yes, what are the effects on policy formulation, and what practical steps have been taken in the matter?

· For projects (tourism), early steps and contacts with policy makers in starting the business, positive and negative experiences; and how could they be avoided or supported in similar enterprises in the future?

· What have your experiences with the local users (villagers, fishermen, tourists and traders in CRs products and other users) during the preparation of the study, or implementation of the project been?

· How have these contacts influenced your work/project, theoretically or practically?

· What have your experiences been with assessing the economic importance of the resource for local users; in case of restrictions on the use of resources what are alternative income sources?

· Is there a danger that illegal users could resort to force in the case of prohibiting their activities? (other security considerations in the area).

· Where would you see needs for capacity building (training) for you, your project or some of the stakeholder groups around you? scope and aspects?

· What kind of inputs/results from other disciplines would enhance your work?

· What kind of inputs/results can you provide for other disciplines?