The workshop provided an opportunity to share lessons, build technical capacity and strengthen regional collaboration on coral reef conservation.
The Coral Reef Rescue Initiative participated to stay connected to Pacific priorities, strengthen its understanding of emerging monitoring tools and identify opportunities to support country-led coral reef conservation. CRRI shared updates on the GEF-7 Coral Reef Rescue Project's support for National Coral Reef Hubs and National Action Plans in Fiji and Solomon Islands, as well as locally led conservation efforts in Fiji's Namuka and Dogotuki districts, where communities have identified proposed marine protected areas within their customary fishing grounds.
The workshop also provided an opportunity to showcase WWF Solomon Islands' community-based monitoring programme, which has trained more than 150 community rangers across 19 communities. Discussions highlighted opportunities to integrate ReefCloud into WWF Solomon Islands' monitoring programme, strengthen data management and reporting, and connect WWF staff and community rangers with ReefCloud trainers and technical experts.
More broadly, the workshop reinforced opportunities to align monitoring and learning efforts with Pacific priorities, strengthen collaboration through the Pacific Coral Reef Action Plan, and connect national reef initiatives through shared learning, data and knowledge exchange. Key next steps include exploring ReefCloud uptake within WWF Solomon Islands and strengthening links between monitoring, management and decision-making across the Pacific.
