IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Iguana iguana Saba subpopulation
Assessment of Iguana iguana Saba subpopulation, Saba Green Iguana
Assessment by: van den Burg, M.P. & Debrot, A.O.
Central repository for biodiversity related research and monitoring data from the Dutch Caribbean
Assessment of Iguana iguana Saba subpopulation, Saba Green Iguana
Assessment by: van den Burg, M.P. & Debrot, A.O.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assumed leadership of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) in 2010 with three primary objectives:
The purpose of our new scientific endeavor is to establish quantitatively rigorous baselines for earlier reef conditions and to document the extent to which different reefs have varyingly declined from a relatively more pristine to degraded state. This variability is the key to understanding why some reefs have much more abundant corals than others; knowledge that is essential for preserving and restoring coral reefs and their ecosystem services in the foreseeable future.
Because of the enormity of the task, we plan to focus on separate biogeographic regions in a stepwise fashion, and then combine all of the results for a global synthesis by 2016. We have begun in tropical America because this is the region with which we are most familiar and to refine our methods of analysis before moving on to other regions. This report describes the results of our very preliminary Caribbean analysis. It will be followed closely by an assessment of the tropical eastern Pacific. This work will be completed in 2012.
The three major components of the scientific effort are to:
We assembled 36 scientists from 18 countries and territories to assess status and trends of Caribbean reefs at our first workshop held at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in the Republic of Panama 29 April to 5 May, 2012. Discussions were based upon initial exploratory analyses of approximately half the 253 data sets obtained so far from 29 countries. Trajectories of status and trends were constructed for reefs from seven countries with additional data for reef fish.
Three general points are clearly evident from these preliminary analyses:
More extensive and detailed results will be presented in a draft Caribbean Synthesis Report in December 2012, to be published and made available online by March 2013. We also plan to follow up with a second Caribbean workshop immediately preceding the 2013 ICRI Meeting in Belize to bring together members of the different GCRMN Caribbean nodes to explore ways the results of the scientific analysis can be used to improve the effectiveness of Caribbean reef monitoring and policy.