The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) is a coalition of researchers whose mission is to provide scientific, up-to-date information on the status and trends of the world’s coral reef ecosystems. Any organization that collects coral reef monitoring data following standard protocols can contribute data to GCRMN, which relies on these voluntary contributions to prepare regional and global reports. These reports are used to make coral reef policy and management recommendations, supporting the mission of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI). 

As a member of ICRI, the Coral Triangle Center (CTC) joined representatives of the GCRMN East Asia region to host a workshop for prospective coral reef data providers in Bali Province. This workshop followed a similar event at the national level in Jakarta, hosted earlier in the year by the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF). On 11 September, representatives of 14 organizations gathered at CTC’s Center for Marine Conservation in Sanur to learn how their local reef monitoring data could support GCRMN’s regional and global reef assessments. The organizations included provincial and central government institutions, universities and non-governmental organizations. Mr. Tadashi Kimura, GCRMN East Asia coordinator, and Professor Loke Ming Chou, chairman of the Asia Pacific Coral Reef Society, presented talks on the structure and mechanism of GCRMN. National University of Singapore PhD student Samuel Chan led participants through an exercise to visualize coral cover data using a standard template, demonstrating how an organization’s own data could contribute to GCRMN’s analyses. 

In a discussion that followed, participants expressed interest in forming the Bali Coral Reef Monitoring Network to compile data from around the province. The data will be shared with the Bali provincial government marine and fisheries agency as well as MMAF, with the intent that it will inform coral reef management at the provincial and national levels while supporting GCRMN’s regional and global analyses.

Does your organization conduct coral reef ecological monitoring in Bali? Please contact us if you would like to join the Bali Coral Reef Monitoring Network and contribute data that will support local, regional and global coral reef conservation and management.