Draft United States Coral Reef Task Force: FY2002 Accomplishments & FY2003 Activities and Key Goals

United States Coral Reef Task Force

In March 2000, the Task Force adopted the National Action Plan to ConseNe Coral Reefs (NAP), the first national blueprint to address the most pressing threats to coral reefs. The Action Plan identified two fundamental themes that frame the Task Force's conservation actions: "Understand Coral Reef Ecosystem" and "Reduce The Adverse Impacts of Human Activities". It is designed to be the nation's roadmap to more effectively understanding coral reef ecosystems and reducing the adverse impacts of human activities. To implement the NAP and fulfill the requirements of the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000 (CRCA), the Task Force, through working with NOAA, produced the National Coral Reef Action Strategy (National Action Strategy) in June 2002. The National Action Strategy outlined thirteen goals that are crucial to addressing and reducing threats to coral reefs worldwide. At the October 2002 Coral Reef Task Force meeting in Puerto Rico, new resolutions were adopted to prioritize focus areas, to increase capacity through increased coordination amount and between federal, state/territory agencies, and to revert the focus to a local or regional effort. The US CRTF agreed that there are six key threats to U.S. coral reef ecosystems including land based sources of pollution, overfishing, recreational overuse, lack of public awareness, coral disease, and climate change and coral bleaching. These threats are the basis of a new coordinated effort between federal and state agencies. In order to prioritize activities at the local level, state/territory and federal agencies are engaged in developing three year local action strategies for each of the key threats. Working with federal, state, territorial, local governments and various non-government partners, the Task Force has made tremendous progress in FY2002 in assisting and coordinating conservation efforts in coral reef ecosystems, and implementing goals outlined in the National Action Strategy. This document presents a brief highlight on some of the important accomplishments in the field of coral reef conservation in FY2002 and activities and key goals in FY2003. To be consistent with the Task Force's resolution of focusing on the six priority threat on coral reef ecosystems, accomplishments and activities in this report are classified accordingly to address the Task Force's efforts in response to each of the priority threat.