After 2.5 years as the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Networks (GCRMN) Global Coordinator, Britta Schaffelke is handing the baton to Dr Manuel Gonzalez Rivero from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).
Following its establishment in 1995, as an operational network of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) at its inaugural General Meeting (Dumaguete City, Philippines), AIMS has hosted the GCRMN from 1996 through 2010, with IUCN hosting the coordinator until 2018, of which AIMS resumed its hosting on the network. Through its coordination, ICRI, AIMS and the diverse community of scientists, institutions and government agencies have maintained the Network’s commitment to implementing its four primary goals to improve global and regional understanding of coral reef status and trends, analyse biophysical, social, and economic trends to provide science-based recommendations for raising awareness, management, and policy development, enable greater coral reef data utilisation, including in research and build capacity to collect, analyse, and report biophysical and socio-economic data on coral reefs.
The network is about the passionate people who are actively contributing to it. The people in many of the GCRMN regions are very active, very collaborative and are transforming how coral reef monitoring is done in their regions.
Britta Schaffelke: As I prepare to conclude my two decades at AIMS, I would like to reflect on the last couple of years of GCRMN and introduce Manuel. For me, the network is about the passionate people who are actively contributing to it. The people in many of the GCRMN regions are very active, very collaborative and are transforming how coral reef monitoring is done in their regions. This will no doubt benefit the global network as this knowledge is shared. I feel that the GCRMN is still on the journey to be more than the sum of its part. One reason is that there are many relatively new contributors to the GCRMN. This renewal is fantastic and with a bit of time will hopefully provide the drive for stronger cross-regional linkages.
I am sure that Manuel as the new coordinator will follow the data science theme in the GCRMN. Manuel has more than a decade of professional experience in all aspects of coral reef monitoring. His strength is innovation of monitoring, for example by developing and implementing technological advances in artificial intelligence (e.g., ReefCloud) and camera technologies (XL Catlin Seaview Survey), application of mathematical modelling of observational data to understand long-term trajectories and drivers of change, and the development of meaningful indices for assessing and reporting coral reef condition and recovery capacity.
Manuel was involved in the production of the Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2020 report, and is a member of the GCRMN Data Taskforce, contributing to ongoing discussions about artificial intelligence-driven data and analysis platforms, such as Coral Net, ReefCloud and Data Mermaid. These new technologies will change the way coral reef monitoring is done, and it is important that people understand their benefits and limitations and to make the platforms as interoperable as possible, for the benefit of the GCRMN members and the wider coral reef monitoring community.
I would like to finish with saying that I have enjoyed working with the GCRMN Steering Committee, the regional coordinators and the ICRI Secretariat these previous years, and would like to thank them for their engagement and contributions.
I feel that the re-invigoration of the network is progressing well and the Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2025 will be a testament to this.
Manuel (Manu) Gonzalez-Rivero: Continuing a long-term trajectory hosting and supporting the GCRMN, AIMS is committed to realise the vision cemented by Britta as the GCRMN Global Coordination.
Personally, it is a real honour but also an enjoyable challenge to fill the shoes of Britta. With over 30 years of experience in coral reef science, Britta has truly excelled in leading science to inform evidence-based conservation actions with insurmountable achievements in the science-to-policy interphase. As a Research Program Director, Britta led a large body of research to support the continual improvement in the management of the Great Barrier Reef through and robust and strategically developed research portfolio.
As the manager of International Relationships at AIMS and the GCRMN Global Coordinator, she fostered and enabled research partnerships to elevate the impact from science in coral reef conservation worldwide. Embedded in all these amazing science leadership achievements is the strong people-centric and caring approach from Britta that has enabled her to elevate voices and plurality in a network of passionate and highly committed conservation practitioners while pushing boundaries to maximise the reach and impact of the GCRMN.
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