GPA Outreach Online Debate: GC/GMEF Mon 8 – Wed 17 March 2004
Stakeholder Forum and GPA are pleased to launch an interactive online debate as part of GPA Outreach. The debate is strategically placed to enable a variety of stakeholders (you!) to input into the 5th Global Civil Society Forum (GCSF) which runs alongside the 8th Special Session of the Governing Council (GC) / Global Ministerial Environmental Forum (GMEF). More information on how to participate will be provided in upcoming emails.
The debate will focus on the following themes:
Water Management and Governance
The Ecosystem Approach; Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM); Rural/Urban Management; Freshwater/Coastal Inter-linkages
Perspectives on Water and Poverty Reduction
Fighting poverty through environmental management; Sewage and wastewater
The debate will be located on Stakeholder Forum’s website along with relevant background documents. Expert practitioners will be lending their views, and all stakeholders are encouraged to participate in this exciting event. Please put the dates in your diary and we look forward to hearing your views!

Deep Sea Species are at Risk from Seabed Trawls
Trawlers scraping the ocean bottom with nets, heavy chains, and steel plates threaten thousands of deep sea species for questionable economic return, environmental groups said this week. Slow-growing, long-lived corals; sponges; and fish living in habitats supporting anything between 500,000 and 100 million species are particularly vulnerable, a trio of international environmental organizations said.
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Coral Reefs and Global Climate Change: Potential Contributions of Climate Change to Stress on Coral Reef Ecosystems
A new report from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change outlines the likely impacts of climate change over the next century on coral reef systems around the world. The report reviews the existing literature on the subject in an effort to analyze the current state of knowledge on coral reef communities and the likely impact of climate change. With the loss of an estimated 25 percent of coral reefs already due to human activities, the report argues that climate change will only intensify the “coral reef crisis” that already exists. Coral reefs are the greatest source of biodiversity of all marine ecosystems, and are estimated to contribute US$30 billion annually to the global economy.
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New Evidence Points to Pollution as Main Cause of Much Coral Reef Destruction
Scientists agree that coral reefs are in an alarming global state of decline. However, determining the main cause or causes of this decline has proven a much more contentious issue. In the current edition of the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology (JEMBE), HARBOR BRANCH marine scientist Dr.Brian Lapointe and colleagues present new evidence they hope will help settle one major debate: whether pollution or overfishing is the main cause of the coral-smothering spread of seaweed on many reefs. The research suggests that pollution from such sources as sewage and agricultural runoff is the main culprit, a conclusion that has major repercussions for managers working to end the decline of reefs in South Florida and around the world.
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