Coral Reef Early warning system workshop to celebrate World Environment Day 2009 - GVI Regiona Director is invited to give part of the course

June 5th of every year marks World Environment Day. World Environment Day (WED) was established by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment.

Commemorated yearly on 5 June, WED is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. The day's agenda is to:

1. Give a human face to environmental issues;
2. Empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development;
3. Promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues;
4. Advocate partnership which will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.

The theme for WED 2009 is 'Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change'. It reflects the urgency for nations to agree on a new deal at the crucial climate convention meeting in Copenhagen some 180 days later in the year, and the links with overcoming poverty and improved management of forests.

This year’s host is Mexico which reflects the growing role of the Latin American country in the fight against climate change, including its growing participation in the carbon markets.

As host, Mexico designated Q Roo as the main state where the majority of the events were to occur this year. The Climate Change conference was organized in Cozumel and a series of talks/workshops and courses were held in Playa del Carmen.

One of the organized courses was the "Coral Reef Early Warning Network" training course. This networks aims to engage coral reef users such as dive professionals, boat captains, fishers, within many others, into conserving and policing these ecosystems. The course provides basic training in order to identify "abnormalities" within the reef, such as diseases, bleaching, invasive species - these "every-day" users of the reef know the reef like no one else does, and thus can identify anything out of the normal. By engaging all the local actors into this protocol, it is hoped that all users will become more active in preserving and caring this beautiful, but nevertheless in danger, environment. On top of that, every day data on the state of the reef will be able to be collected and scienctific efforts focused on problematic areas. In this ocasion, GVI's Regional Director Daniel Ponce-Taylor was invited by the Municipality of Solidaridad to deliver part of the course.

We would like to congratulate all particpants who finished and past the course and we look forward to startingn receiving their reports and information

Coral Reef Early warning system workshop to celebrate World Environment Day 2009 - GVI Regiona Director is invited to give part of the course