United States, NOAA

Coastal management is a prominent topic of concern to the world, and an understanding of the ecological processes in mangrove ecosystems is essential. These ecosystems are a distinctive feature in the tropical and subtropical coastlines of the Americas and the Caribbean, with great scientific, economic and cultural value. The scientific contributions in this monograph are focused on resource management and the policy decisions that are required for mangrove management.

Creation and effective management of marine protected areas (MPAs) have lagged behind those of protected areas on land, but they are just as important. The world urgently needs a comprehensive system of MPAs to conserve biodiversity and to help rebuild the productivity of the oceans. The aim of these guidelines is to help countries establish systems of MPAs as a key component of integrated management of coastal and marine areas and as part of their sustainable development.

Without active intervention and management, Marine turtle populations are expected to continue their decline to extinction. This strategy covering nine individual strategies ranging from research and monitoring to funding for marine turtle conservation is intended to meet the need for a comprehensive, unified and global approach to the issues.

Presents research results on LMEs including identification of the major driving forces causing large-scale changes in biomass yields and health; development of ecosystem component models; and monitoring and assessment strategies and techniques for measuring changing states of LMEs. Covers contributions from 68 marine scientists from 14 countries.

This report signals a new approach to ocean monitoring and management that lays a solid base using the principles of ecology and sustainable development while transcending traditional geopolitical and disciplinary divisions. LMEs are relatively large regions, often including the territorial waters of more than one nation, thus making coordination of monitoring and management highly desirable.

A straight forward presentation of the keynote papers and case studies prepared for the workshop on coastal marine biosphere serves held in 1989. The keynote papers together provide an excellent digest of the different factors to be considered in biosphere reserve planning, examining constraints across the full range of physical to socio-economic spheres.