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Community-Based Whole-Watershed Proceedings 8th International Coral Reef Symposium 2:2093-2096. 1997
T. J. Goreau1,2, L. Daley1, S. Ciappara2, J. Brown1, S. Bourke2, & K. Thacker1 Negril Environmental Protection Trust, Negril, Jamaica Port Antonio Marine Park and Forest Corridor Project, Port Antonio, Jamaica NOTE: This paper describes two examples of how successful coral reef management can only take place when the coastal zone is managed as a single unit together with the adjacent land watersheds from which the major stresses to the reefs originate. The role of community involvement is emphasized, and on of the few cases of the cleaning up of a polluted reef by sewage treatment is described. ABSTRACT Jamaican coral reefs subjected to land-based human population density-dependent stresses have deteriorated from reduced water quality and eutrophication, but remain in good shape where stresses are small. To restore degraded areas, coral reefs and coastal zones at both ends of the island are being managed as single units together with adjacent watersheds by broad coalitions of local environmental, professional, and citizen's organizations. Programs underway and being developed include water quality monitoring, expanded sewage collection and treatment, use of non-polluting "dry" toilets, protection of wetlands and watershed recharge areas, reforestation of degraded hill slopes, establishment of fish nurseries, development of mariculture, reef restoration, boat and diving moorings, school programs and public education, sustainable natural resource use, community social development, and regional co-management with the Jamaican Government's Natural Resources Conservation Authority. INTRODUCTION Ecological changes in Jamaican reefs have been studied by diving since 1951 (Goreau, 1956; Goreau, 1992). Jamaican reefs are under increasing stress from coastal development for tourism (the island's major foreign exchange earner), and increased migration to coastal towns. Stresses include sewage discharge directly into the coastal zone or indirectly via rivers and groundwater, solid wastes, fertilizer leaching, pesticide runoff, soil erosion, boating and fishing activities, dredging, and construction. These stresses are functions of local and regional population density, but coral reefs are also stressed from projected planetary stresses such as global warming and sea level rise, dependent on worldwide population growth and energy use. The reefs are also affected by natural stresses like hurricanes and diseases, whose intensity and frequency may increase as a result of global climate change. Prior to intensified coastal development in recent decades reefs bounced back from natural disasters, but human-caused stresses now largely prevent this. After Hurricanes Charlie (1951) and Flora (1963) Jamaican reefs recovered rapidly (T. F. Goreau, pers. comm.), but after Hurricanes Allen (1980) and Gilbert (1988) there has been little coral settlement off populated shores. Reefs are unlikely to recover unless all major causes of degradation are correctly identified and reduced. They cannot be protected unless both local water users (tourists, fishermen, and coastal developers) and populations in interior watersheds (who may live far from the sea and whose life does not depend on reefs) change their practices to reduce impacts on the coastal zone. Consequently coral reef protection efforts focus on identifying major reef stresses, devising specific measures to alleviate them, and educating the public about the importance of protecting coral reefs and restoring healthy environmental conditions. The Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA), the government agency responsible for national environmental protection and management, recognizes that officials in the capital are less able than locally-based organizations to identify local problems, propose solutions, or implement them. Central control over environmental policy has historically resulted in decisions favoring short term financial interests of individuals and institutions which are well-connected in the capital. Decision making is often protracted and may not address local concerns. Residents of the area feel increasingly dispossessed and powerless to control access to resources or halt degradation from development that adversely affects their quality of life, causing increasing alienation from the political process. NRCA has decided to increase the power of local communities to decide which forms of development, conservation, and environmental management best meets their long term needs, by developing regional environmental management plans for the coastal zone and adjacent watersheds (Government of Jamaica, 1995). The areas discussed in this paper are the first in the island to develop such plans, and it is anticipated that other areas will follow. Rather than "parks" in the conventional sense, these Environmental Protected Areas will be multi-zoned, multi-use areas ranging from strictly protected natural ecosystems to intensively utilized agricultural and urban areas. They will be the first parts of Jamaica to develop consistent local enforcement of national environmental laws while also applying site specific local regulations. In each region local environmental protection groups have sprung from concerns of local fishermen, divers, hotels, businesspeople, and residents who have observed environmental deterioration and are concerned about decreased quality of life for their children due to loss of natural habitat, pollution, and unsustainable use of natural resources. Businesses depending on tourism fear loss of income if environmental deterioration causes visitors to choose other destinations. Concerned individuals and groups have banded together to ensure preparation and application of development guidelines to protect what is left and restore degraded areas. These umbrella group coalitions include all interested local professional organizations, community residents associations, schoolchildren, teachers, fishermen, divers, water sports operators, farmers, tourism interests, business groups, government agencies, quasi-government organizations, etc. Numerous public meetings and workshops have identified environmental problems and conservation priorities, suggested environment and development guidelines, and developed proposals for community projects to solve problems that can be tackled through local goodwill, voluntary efforts, and minimal funding (Goreau et al. 1995; Bourke et al. 1996). By achieving local consensus and national credibility, the government has recognized them as all-inclusive and representative groups with experience to become local partners in environmental co-management in cooperation with NRCA. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sites: Negril and Port Antonio are located at opposite ends of Jamaica. Negril was undeveloped and largely inaccessible due to lack of roads before 1960, but has since been subjected to rapid and escalating development. Port Antonio was historically one of the first areas to be developed for towns, agriculture, and tourism, but poor transportation has caused economic stagnation since 1960. Negril, in the lee of the island, is one of the calmest and best protected shores, while Port Antonio is on the windward shore with high wave energies. Negril is low-lying and relatively dry, while Port Antonio is next to the highest, wettest, and most densely forested part of Jamaica (Thompson et al. 1985; Vickers 1979). Negril contains the country's longest beach, second largest wetland, large areas of mangrove, and unusual endemic plants including the Jamaican swamp royal palm, Roystonea princeps, and the endangered Negril orchid, Broughtonia negrilensis (Goreau, 1994). Port Antonio is very mountainous, and wetlands and mangroves are confined to small floodplains where numerous rivers discharge into the sea. The mountains above Port Antonio are the centre of the island's endemic species, including numerous ferns, flowering plants. tree snails, and the world's second largest butterfly. Jamaica's wet low-land forest has almost vanished and none of that remaining is currently protected. Only high elevation forest is protected in the current national park system. The Port Antonio Marine Park and Forest Corridor Project aims to protect a complete forested ecotone from the sea to the highest mountain peak in Jamaica (7,402 feet), and is the last place left where this can be done. Both areas formerly contained some of the best coral reefs in Jamaica, including sites with corals of remarkable size, age, and growth rate. Most of these reefs are now affected by eutrophication, with live coral cover in the range of 30-40%, but reefs off lightly populated coastlines are still in good condition, and have live coral cover of up to 80%. Both areas contain endangered marine vertebrates including manatee, crocodiles, sea turtles, and dolphins. Except for a healthy manatee population near Port Antonio, all are highly threatened and in need of protection. The ecology of reefs in both areas were studied by the late T. F. Goreau in the 1950s and 1960s. Coral reefs have been re-examined over the last 3-5 years to assess current status and identify major stress gradients in coastal zones and adjacent watersheds. They have been assessed by walking along all accessible shorelines, snorkeling and diving on all major reefs, or by boat tow along the coast, to identify spatial variation in coral and algae species and cover, especially known stress indicator species. Sportdivers and fishermen were interviewed about observed changes in reefs and fisheries. Forests, wetlands, soils, springs, rivers, and groundwater resources are being assessed with regard to changes from deforestation, agriculture, and development. Environmental changes have been documented in public meetings, lectures, papers, and workshop volumes as the basis for detailed environmental management proposals to NRCA and the Minister of the Environment for locally managed programs to reduce or reverse these changes (Goreau et al. 1995; Bourke et al. 1996). RESULTS Current reef situation: The major factor preventing reef recovery is greatly increased abundance of fleshy algae which smother and kill corals and prevent young corals from settling. Reefs which were almost entirely covered by live corals are now fleshy algae covered bottoms with only isolated corals. The massive proliferation of weedy algae is largely due to excessive coastal zone nutrients from land-based sources of sewage and fertilizers. Critical eutrophication limits for coral reef ecosystems have been determined to be only 1.0 micromole per litre of nitrogen (nitrate plus ammonium) and 0.1 micromole per litre of phosphorous (orthophosphate plus dissolved organic forms) (Bell 1992; Lapointe et al. 1993), the lowest values for any marine ecosystem. Many Jamaican coastal waters are well in excess of these limits (Goreau & Thacker 1994). Overgrowth of corals by algae occurred at different times at different parts of Jamaica, but always folowed local coastal development and population growth. Reefs near Kingston went eutrophic in the 1950s, those near Montego Bay and Ocho Rios in the 1960s and 1970s respectively, near Discovery Bay in the 1980s, and near Negril in the 1990s (Goreau 1992). Some Jamaican reefs still have coral cover of 80% or more, but are confined to the most remote and isolated areas and are increasingly subject to expansion of tourism and population, or are the site of proposed new developments. These increasingly rare areas are Jamaica's major marine conservation priority because only such isolated areas still have large numbers of healthy corals and high biodiversity, and are the only possible Jamaican sources of new marine recruits for degraded reef areas down current. It has been proposed that overfishing and sea urchin disease are the causes of algae proliferation in Jamaican reefs (Hughes 1994), but field observations indicate these changes took place at different times in different locations (Goreau 1992). Overfishing was already severe all around Jamaica by the mid 1960s, and so cannot be the cause of events taking place up to two to three decades later. Severe overfishing has certainly had devastating effects on fish populations, but a strong correspondence can still be seen between fish abundance and coral reef health: fish are very scarce wherever reef structure is absent or severely damaged, but are abundant wherever reefs are in good health, despite heavy fishing pressure. All reefs studied by Hughes were immediately downstream from hotels, towns, and known point sources of sewage and nutrients, despite claims that they were pollution-free. Although Hughes suggests that overfishing has resulted in deterioration of coral reefs it is our view that reef degradation from eutrophication has destroyed habitat for reef fish populations. If so, improving water quality is more important for restoring reef health and fisheries than is controlling overfishing, although clearly both must be part of the solution. Massive mortality of the black sea urchin Diadema antillarum in 1983 coincided with algae proliferation in some areas such as Discovery Bay which was simultaneously going eutrophic, but this was not generally true in other parts of the island. Algae proliferation now extends all the way down the fore-reef slope even though Diadema were never very abundant in that habitat, being largely confined to shallow fore reef and protected back-reef lagoonal areas. Diadema grazing was a significant factor in controlling algae in the past when nutrients were lower, but this is no longer the case. In most areas where Diadema populations have recovered they are unable to consume most of the algae due to the extremely rapid growth rates of algae fertilized by excessive nutrients. Diadema which used to forage long distances now are observed to graze only in very limited halos around their resting sites, leaving abundant masses of algae around them. Reefs which are free of local landbased sources of nutrients have low algae abundances even where there has been no recovery of Diadema populations and where fish are also very scarce due to intensive fishing efforts. Young corals are rare wherever algae biomass is high, but are abundant in areas remote from human stress. From 1992 through 1994 there was an unusual incidence of Northers, eruptions of cold North American air into the Caribbean during winter. Fishermen who rely on Northers because of the larger offshore fish they bring, found they had become uncommon since the 1970s. Increased rougher weather was accompanied by a decline in the long, hot, calm, cloudless periods which preceded massive coral bleaching in 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1995. Water temperatures did not get hot enough during 1992, 1993, and 1994 to trigger mass coral bleaching. The prevalence of Northers in this period may be due to the global cooling which followed eruption of Mount Pinatubo volcano in the Phillipines on June 15 1991. Although nutrient, sediment, and solid waste stresses to reefs continued to escalate throughout this period, coral settlement took place off undeveloped shores and headlands where storm wave energy focusing removed fleshy algae. Corals which have been especially prolific at recruiting suitable sites in this period include Agaricia agaricites, Porites astreoides, Porites porites, Porites branneri, Porites furcata, Diploria clivosa, Acropora palmata, and Acropora cervicornis. Besides episodically clearing high wave energy sites of weedy algae and permitting coral settlement, rougher weather caused increased reliance on offshore fishing, and improved circulation in bays, reducing the residence time of water and hence reducing nutrient concentrations, causing a decrease in massive benthic algal blooms. The cool period ended with a massive coral bleaching episode in 1995, the hottest year recorded in world history. Resumption of warmer weather patterns is likely to result in increased bleaching, increased reef eutrophication, and decreased coral recruitment. Improvements in water quality in reef areas by reduction of nutrient inputs are critical for corals to recover and re-create habitat for restoring fish populations. DISCUSSION Reef protection on national and community scales: Government will establish the Negril and Port Antonio Environmental Protected Areas once specific regulations are drafted for conservation and management of natural ecosystems, soils, fresh waters, ground waters, and marine areas. Funding for establishing a management framework, including project managers, educational and community outreach officers, environmental rangers, and scientific advisors has been obtained for three years from the European Union and USAID in Negril, and from the MacArthur Foundation in Port Antonio. They are expected to become financially self-supporting from revenues from project funding, grants, endowments, user fees, trust funds, and other funding initiatives, but it seems likely that long term sustainability will require establishment of national funding mechanisms for environmental protection and management, probably from access fees and specifically earmarked revenues generated from tourism. In each area more than 30 projects have been proposed, based on intensive consultation with all sectors of the community and approved by consensus through a series of public community meetings. Funding has already been obtained for many of these projects, and several are underway. Projects include identifying, mapping, and classifying forests from aerial photographs, so that specific areas can be proposed for legal "Tree Preservation Orders" to protect areas of high biodiversity and groundwater recharge. Botanical and zoological surveys are planned to develop plans to protect endangered endemic plants and animals. All remaining mangroves and wetlands will be proposed for protection from further clearance, drainage, or infilling with marl for construction. Recovering reef areas will be proposed for special protection to prevent further adjacent shore development. Marine zoning plans are being prepared to demarcate recreational swimming, boating, and watersports areas, which have been demarcated by buoys in Negril. Fisheries management plans are being developed by fishermen's cooperatives, to determine fish nursery areas in need of protection from fishing, and which types of fishing gear are suitable in each area and season. Restrictions on spearfishing, seine nets, and fish trap mesh size are likely in many locations. Alternatives being developed to ease the pressure of overfishing include mariculture of seaweeds, oysters, and herbivorous reef fish. Fish aggregation devices (FADs) are under construction to build up resident populations of larger offshore fish so fishermen can afford to reduce efforts in inshore areas. Experimental artificial reefs have been constructed to help restore corals and fish populations in degraded areas (Goreau & Hilbertz, 1996). Land use zoning proposals being developed would control deforestation and unsustainable land uses in ecologically sensitive areas. Tree nurseries have been built in every school in Port Antonio, and tree growing and planting projects involve every school child. Reforestation projects are proposed in almost every community to restore forests, control shore erosion, protect watershed recharge, conserve soil, or provide wood, fuel, fruit, and shade. Erosion control plans include reforestation of hillside slopes, vegetation corridors along watercourses, bench terracing, replacement of annual crops by perennial tree crops, and use of vetiver grass. Recharge areas for public water supplies will be strictly protected by forest preservation or reforestation. Water quality monitoring programs have been started in both areas, and ecologically meaningful water quality standards for nitrogen and phosphorous will be adopted as targets for remedial efforts to reduce pollution by sewage, fertilizers, and pesticides. Projects are being developed to use solar-powered groundwater pumps and tanks to provide safe water in areas where large numbers of poor residents who lack access to treated water are forced to drink, bathe, and wash in contaminated streams and springs, and to examine and treat water-borne infectious agents. Support is being given to increased sewage collection and treatment, with a special emphasis on development of biological tertiary treatment to reduce nutrients in sewage effluents and in the coastal zone. Areas which cannot be affordably connected to sewage collection lines are the focus of programs to build non-polluting sealed composting toilets to replace existing "soak away" systems which contaminate limestone groundwaters and the coastal zone through flow via underground caves. Emphasis on improved water quality has already shown impressive dividends. Dragon Bay in Portland, surrounded by a resort, was undergoing eutrophication and reefs were deteriorating when surveyed in 1993. A water quality study suggested the problems could be traced to two point sources. Phosphate detergents were being released from the laundry into a river emptying into the south of the bay, where large blooms of Chaetomorpha linum, a green alga capable of taking up and storing excess phosphorous, were overgrowing seagrasses. Secondary treated sewage was being released into the west of the bay, where entering swells washed them inwards, producing nitrate levels more than 3 times the critical levels in an area where coral reefs and calcareous algae beds were being overgrown with weedy red and brown algae, including Centroceras clavulatum, Ceramium sp., and Lobophora variegata. The hotel management was urged to treat laundry effluents along with sewage, and to apply secondary treated effluents to vegetation which could take up the nutrients. The hotel followed this advice, ending all direct releases of effluents into the water, and applying treated effluents to the lawn through a sprinkler system. A rapid and dramatic improvement in the ecological condition of the bay took place. The weedy algae have nearly vanished and been replaced by the calcareous algae essential to beach sand renourishment, which were previously being killed by fleshy algae overgrowth. Fleshy algae covering limestone bottom were replaced by encrusting red algae, setting the stage for settlement of juvenile corals. Although reduction of nutrient inputs results in rapid response by algae, coral regrowth will take longer, yet as long as improved water quality is maintained, reef recovery is likely. This was a simple case because only two point sources needed to be controlled, but it indicates that similar results should occur elsewhere. It should also be noted that this bay is one in which there is little fishing, and herbivorous fish and sea urchin populations were relatively high. Public education campaigns are constantly ongoing, using brochures, meetings, lectures, radio, television, and films. A focus on schools is aiding a generational transformation in which children are leading adults in environmental awareness and commitment. Schoolchildren participate in environmental programs including beach cleanups, garbage separation, composting, and tree planting. 470 schoolchildren are being trained as Junior Rangers in Negril, while hundreds of National Youth Service trainees have helped build seedling shade houses in Port Antonio, and many have started horticultural businesses for themselves. A paradigm shift will result when more people see the economic value and improved quality of life accruing to community members from environmental enhancement. Without an educated, enlightened, far sighted, and empowered public and meaningful participatory democracy there will be little opportunity to protect and sustain coral reefs, fisheries, marine biodiversity, shorelines, beach sand supplies, or tourism. Past development decisions made in the capital without meaningful local input have largely benefited well-connected individuals and corporations who have profited immensely from tourism projects that have often displaced local residents, prevented access to public beaches, and polluted, alienated, or destroyed local air, water, soil, and biotic resources for immediate profit, rather than nurturing them for maximal sustainable yields. By placing environmental assessment, evaluation, decision making, and project implementation in the hands of local community-based non-governmental coalitions, these two projects have generated hope that local long term interests will be given precedence. Because coral reefs are directly or indirectly affected by so many human activities, their protection requires addressing all major stresses simultaneously, not picking and choosing a few for symbolic efforts, such as sewage treatment schemes which lack tertiary treatment or collect from enough of the population to reduce coastal zone nutrients below critical eutrophication limits. Management of reefs must maintain habitat in which corals can be healthy, providing free social benefits from ecosystem services such as fisheries, sand production, shore protection, and habitat for diving and snorkeling. Objective environmental assessment and goals must be the criteria by which success of management programs are evaluated. Too often "paper parks" have been established in reef areas lacking meaningful scientific guidance, whose success is measured in control of money, offices, personnel, equipment, gallons of fuel consumed, and hours spent in routine patrols. Corals will continue to die in such "parks" despite any amount of spending. To be effective, management plans must have as their major objective verifiably improved environmental conditions. Meaningful coral reef protection will require addressing the entire spectrum of stresses to corals from pollution of air, water, and soil, including activities in the water over the reef as well as in areas remote from it, which affect our crop production, energy, and land use practices, as well as our waste disposal. Protecting coral reefs for future generations provides the strongest test of our commitments to sustainable development because it requires that we address almost all major environmental, social, and development issues simultaneously: we must treat our sewage, replant our forests, stop physical destruction of reefs, control overfishing, and stop global climate change, or face crippling losses to tourism. shore protection, biodiversity, and fisheries. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We gratefully acknowledge support of the European Union and USAID for development of a management framework for Negril and the MacArthur Foundation for Port Antonio. Preparation of the Negril Protected Area Management Plan was supported by the DEMO Government of Jamaica project funded by USAID. T. Goreau gratefully acknowledges support from a Pew Foundation Conservation Fellowship. We specially thank the staff and members of the Negril Environmental Protection Trust, especially George Gordon and Eddy Gordon, and the board of the Portland Environmental Protection Association, in particular Marguerite Gauron and Jonathan Lamey, and the hundreds of local residents who have contributed through discussion, information, advice, and voluntary work. This work would not have been possible without their commitment to preserving the beauty of Jamaica for our children's children. We also thank our families and friends for moral support through years of voluntary work leading to the development and funding of these projects. REFERENCES Bell P (1992) Eutrophication and coral reefs: some examples in the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon. Water Research 26: 553-568 Bourke S, Goreau TJ, Ciappara S, Wirth T, Gauron M, Lamey J, Ridguard Y, Rendle S, Lewis B, Perry P (1996) Port Antonio marine park and forest corridor environmental protected area plan. Portland Environmental Protection Association. Port Antonio. Jamaica Goreau TF (1956) A study of the biology and histochemistry of corals. PhD dissertation, Yale Universitv, New Haven, Connecticut, USA Goreau TJ (1992) Bleaching and reef community change in Jamaica: 1951-1991. American Zoolonist 32: 683-695 Goreau TJ (1994) The Negril Watershed: habitats and ecosystems. In Thacker K (ed) Preserving Jamaica's coral reef ecosystems: The Negril Environmental Protected Area. Negril Coral Reef Preservation Society, Negril, Jamaica Goreau TJ, Thacker K (1994) Coral reefs, sewage, and water quality standards. Proc. Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association Conference, Kingston, Jamaica
Goreau TJ, Brown J, Gordon E, Gordon G, Guthrie V, Ruddock N, Evans R, Thacker K (1995) Negril and Green Island area environmental protection plan. Natural Resources Conservation Authority. Kingston. Jamaica Government of Jamaica (1995) Towards a national system of parks and protected areas. Green Paper #1/95. Kingston, Jamaica Hughes T (1994) Catastrophes, phase shifts, and large scale degradation of a Caribbean coral reef. Science 265: 1547-1551 Lapointe B, Littler M, Littler D (1993) Modification of benthic community structure by natural eutrophication: the Belize barrier reef. Proc. 7th Int. Coral Reef Symp. pp 317-328, Guam Thompson DA, Bretting PN, Humphreys M (1985) Forests of Jamaica. Jamaican Society of Scientists and Technologists. Kingston, Jamaica Vickers D (1979) The rainfall of Jamaica. J. Geological Society of Jamaica. 18: 5-26
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