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The Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative (formally known as the Healthy Mesoamerican Reef Ecosystem

Initiative) was launched in 2003 on the premise that healthy reefs are essential to sustaining healthy people. In

turn, only when local people are healthy and thriving can they be expected to protect the reefs and other natural

resources upon which their livelihoods and quality of life depend.

The main goals of the Healthy Reefs Initiative are to:

1.

Promote the adoption and application of Healthy Reefs indicators by managers, policy makers and other leaders

concerned with the integrity of the Mesoamerican Reef Ecosystem;

2.

Standardize the analysis and interpretation of reliable scientific data to improve reef ecosystem management;

and

3.

Serve as an open forum for information sharing and networking among science and conservation partners.

The Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative

encourages dialogue and collaboration

to strengthen efforts to protect the Mesoamerican Reef.

The Initiative's founding partners are the World Wildlife Fund, Perigee Environmental, The Summit Foundation, the

World Bank, and the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS) Project of the Central American Commission for

Environment and Development (CCAD) with support from the Global Environment Facility / World Bank.

Additional partners include The Nature Conservancy, Environmental Defense, the Smithsonian Institution, Atlantic

and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment Program, Conservation International, The Coral Reef Alliance, International Coral

Reef Action Network, Wildlife Conservation Society, World Resources Institute, and numerous local partners and

scientists.

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