Monitoring Training Recommendations for future work

122 Another very important aspect, with respect to management, is to determine sustainable levels of resource use Horrill et al., 1996. Management programmes always advocate sustainable utilisation of resources, since communities need to make use of their resources in order to survive, but we know very little about what the actual sustainable rates of exploitation are. A specific problem that needs to be tackled includes the ecological impact of sedimentation. In particular, there is needs to conduct a detailed study on the impacts of speedboats, both small and large especially the boats that goes between Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam. This is in order to obtain information on the critical speeds, orientations, and distances for travelling in the vicinity of coral reefs.

4.11.5 Monitoring

So far, monitoring has mainly just been baseline studies and if many years lapse without repetition, scientists will again have to conduct new baseline studies. What is necessary is, following baseline studies, to conduct monitoring sessions at regular intervals of a few months or, at most a year, using the same methods, the same sites and, if possible, the same transects or quadrats. Moreover, monitoring needs to be done systematically at various times of the year in order to determine seasonal patterns in reef biota and abiotic factors. Horrill 1995 recommends that, in order to answer the information needs for management, monitoring programmes should collect the following types of information on coral reefs. Reef positions, reef names including local names, types of human and natural impacts, management practices in place, type of use, benthic cover, counts of target, indicator and endangered species, counts of reef grazers and coral predators, description of the reef structure framework, slope, etc., coral growth forms and user perceptions of the current condition. So far, monitoring has occurred somewhat haphazardly according to the availability of funds from donors. Muhando 1998 recommended that coral reef monitoring should be part and parcel of government activities. Thus, monitoring could be more systematic, both geographically and temporally. Data from two coral reef monitoring programmes which are stored in computer data bases at IMS Muhando, 1999b and the Tanga Coastal Zone Conservation and Development Programme offices Section 7.4 should be analysed, summarised and interpreted in scientific reports in order to be useful to decision-makers and other scientists.

4.11.6 Training

While some coral reef research can be done by snorkelling, much of it requires SCUBA diving. There are a limited number of trained SCUBA divers in the country since the training is expensive. Thus, there is a need to give such training to a greater number of students, researchers and community members, e.g., fishermen. In addition, researchers need to be trained in coral reef monitoring techniques. Such training should give importance to taxonomic training so that identification can be done at the species level. Community members should also be trained in simpler monitoring techniques. Since restoration work needs a lot of manpower, fishermen should be trained to apply various restoration techniques, such as transplanting coral fragments and placing clay tiles to aid coral recruitment Section 6.8.

4.11.7 Other