'%Healthy Reefs for Healthy People - A Guide to Indicators of Reef Health and Social Well-being in the Mesoamerican Reef Region%'%by Melanie McField and Patricia Kramer% of 16

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Transforming the Status Quo

compelling evaluation of the MAR's ecological and

social well-being.

This guide provides readers with a holistic

understanding of reef ecosystem health and an

Achieving this lofty goal will require the cooperation

and collaboration of all partners. The following table

enhanced interpretation of their own monitoring data.

illustrates some of the transformations required to

By using a common currency of standard metrics,

many organizations in the region will contribute to

affect (or change) our "in the box" way of thinking and

and benefit from a wider pool of accessible and

our traditional approach to resource management and

conservation.

meaningful data for a more comprehensive and

Table 10.b Sea Change of Transformations

(What the Initiative Aims to Transform)

Status Quo

Evolving Into...

Local Spatial Scale

Ecoregional Spatial Scale

Long-term perspective

Short-term perspective

Eco-social integration

Eco-centric (ecology)

Multi-metric analysis

Single-metric analysis

Positive perspective

Negative perspective

Inclusive of stakeholders

Exclusionary

Standardized data analysis

Disparate standards for

monitoring & data analysis

Many separate studies

Common reporting platform

with open access database

and databases

Disparate local or

Common vision &

organizational visions

definition of reef health

Lisa Carnes

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