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Global Seagrass Workshop at ERF 2001

International Group Promotes Seagrass Conservation

Frederick T. Short
fred.short@unh.edu

As part of ERF 2001, a group of seagrass scientists from around the world were convened by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre/United Nations Environment Program (WCMC/UNEP) to assess the global distribution and status of seagrasses. Twenty-two scientists representing 18 countries came together in St. Pete Beach with all the available information each could acquire on seagrass distribution from their part of the world.

The overall aim of the workshop was to develop a new synthesis describing both the distribution and status of seagrasses at the global level. The synthesis is intended to shape a clearer agenda for seagrass conservation and awareness, focusing priorities at the international level. It is clear that like other estuarine and coastal ecosystems, seagrasses are vulnerable to human impacts; such impacts may degrade ecological functions and values that are critical to human coastal communities.

The workshop organized by WCMC/UNEP was supported in part by ERF, the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR), the United Kingdom Department of International Development, the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation as well as those participating scientists who came to the workshop and ERF on their own funding.

The workshop brought 18 new international members to ERF, many of whom presented posters or talks at ERF 2001. All of these participants were impressed by the scientific content of the ERF meeting, the diversity of interest in seagrasses, and the positive welcome and warmth of ERF members. For many, it was a first opportunity to attend an international conference and be able to talk with the enthusiastic students and scientists at ERF 2001.

Mark Spalding and Michelle Taylor of WCMC (United Kingdom) facilitated the workshop. Participants included Rob Coles and Di Walker of Australia, Joel Creed of Brazil, Tanaji Jagtap of India, Hitoshi Iizumi of Japan, Kun-Seop Lee of Korea, Japar Sidik of Malaysia, Andrea Raz-Guzman and Jorge Silveira of Mexico, Salomao Bandeira of Mozambique, Graeme Inglis of New Zealand, Miguel Fortes of the Philippines, Caroline Ochieng of Tanzania, Chatcharee Supanwanid and Hugh Kirkman of Thailand, Nataliya Milchakova of Ukraine, and Evamarie Koch, Ron Phillips, Fred Short, and Sandy Wyllie-Echeverria of the United States.
The workshop, held all day Friday, November 9, followed the lead of global coral reef activities, striving to create an international atlas of seagrasses and a document that will focus international attention on the plight of seagrass resources. Initially, the group assessed the recent seagrass literature survey conducted by WCMC and began the incorporation of participant reports on seagrass status and distribution prepared for the meeting.

The workshop group addressed four areas of focus to answer specifically:
1. What is the agreed global list of seagrass species, their status and their associated ecosystem components?
2. What are the important uses of seagrass and threats to seagrass, their economic and social values, estimated losses globally, and the impacts of such losses on human populations?
3. What is the global distribution of seagrass habitat, the total area, magnitude of production, and the global value?
4. What is the status of seagrass management, marine protected areas and seagrass restoration world wide?

Significant progress was made in addressing all four questions. At the end of the day, the group felt it had accomplished a great deal in reaching its goal of promoting seagrass conservation and producing a final product that will increase public awareness of seagrass globally and in unifying the international seagrass effort. The group will use facilities of the newly formed World Seagrass Association to continue such efforts through the Seagrass Forum and at the upcoming meeting of the International Seagrass Biology Workshop in Tijuana, Mexico (http://eventos.cicese.mx/isbw5/). The ultimate outcome of the WCMC workshop will be a jointly developed synthesis of current knowledge on the distribution and status of seagrasses worldwide.