Progress report for
Let's make the ocean great again !
Achievement at a glance
BIOMARES achieved its commitment to increase public awareness of world coral mortality due to climate change by holding a conference-screening-debate, entitled World Coral Mass Mortality due to Anthropic Carbon Dioxide (CO2). The event was organized at the initiative of Mr. Bruno Bautil from BIOMARES on October 5th, 2017. The movie screened was Chasing Coral illustrating the world coral mass mortality that occurred in 2016 and 2017. (sciences.ulb.ac.be/agenda/chasing-coral/). The event is part of BIOMARES commitment made at the UN ocean conference in New York (oceanconference.un.org/commitments/?id=19088). It is also a side event of the Our Ocean 2017 international conference in Malta hosted by the EU www.ourocean2017.org/sites/default/files/side-events.pdf(page 4)The event was organized in cooperation with Pr. Dahdouh-Guebas from ULB, Research Unit on Systems Ecology and Resource Management and ULB- INFORSCIENCES. Pr. Dahdouh-Guebas is also Coordinator of the TROPIMUNDO ERASMUS Masters program and a Mangrove specialist.At the presentation, the main speaker was Mr. Bruno Bautil, from BIOMARES. Mr. Bautil described the impact of coral loses on marine Biodiversity and the global state of marine biodiversity. Mr. Bautil is a masters in marine Ecology & Zoology, he for worked many years on sustainable Fisheries and Marine conservation, in Tropical countries, including 2 Marines Protected Areas (WNHS), Aldabra & the Galapagos. Mr. Bautil created an Eco-counselling office in Marine conservation called BIOMARES, whose moto is One Dead Sea is Enough. Moderators where Pr. Dr. Marc Kochzius, Coral reef specialist from VUB and Prof. Dr. DAHDOUH-GUEBAS.A large public (> 150 people) attended the event. The picture above illustrates the organizers of the event together with the public, left to right: Pr. Farid Dahdouh-Guebas; Pr. Marc Kochzius; Mr. Jrme de Schauwers; Mr. Bruno Bautil and the Public.Challenges faced in implementation
The main challenge for BIOMARES was to identify experts partners for collaboration, mobilize facilities, identify the best scientifically sound documentary to successfully show-case the Mass mortality of coral reefs in the world and coordinate all activities to hold the event to increase awareness of a large public and students to the impact of climate change on life below water (SDG 14). All parties had to give work time and make facilities available and bare the eventual costs of the event. BIOMARES, a small private enterprise took the initiative of the event and with the help of its partners, managed to mobilize all energy to successfully organize the event. \r\n\r\nFurther possibilities of commitments to the UN on holding events that showcase the state of marine Biodiversity and the state of coral world-wide, will depend on financial and cooperation support BIOMARES can get for its long-term objective to Lets make the Ocean Great Again.Beneficiaries
The main beneficiaries are the general public and university students who participated to this Conference-screening-debate on World mortality of Corals reefs due to climate change.