Abstract

FORCE takes an ecosystem approach, linking social and ecological aspects, towards managing Caribbean coral reefs inthe face of climate change. It brings together scientists from 20 organizations from the Caribbean, Europe, USA and Australia. The overall objective is to identify the most appropriate management interventions for coral reefs and the governance structures needed for their implementation. FORCE will determine the effects of climate change, overfishing, pollution, and poor governance on the health of Caribbean reefs. The team will then assemble and refine a toolbox of management measures that can be used to improve the health and wise use of coral reefs. Not all management measures are equally effective, so the project will use ecological models and novel social science methods to assess the efficacy of each tool and the governance constraints to its implementation. A series of natural and social science case studies will be undertaken in five countries. New field investigations will quantify the effects of changing reef health on biodiversity, seek ways of improving fisheries management, and allow the effects of ocean acidification and coral bleaching to be modeled more accurately. The empirical studies will be integrated with global climate models.

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