International Year of the Reef - A Week in ReefView
A NEW column on Coastal Awareness - Week in Reefview
By Andre Cartwright, Sustainable Tourism Development Officer & IYOR2008 Focal Point - Bahamas
Apr 2, 2008 - 11:35:41 AM

April 1^st marked the beginning of the Ministry of Tourism & Aviation’s 4^th Annual National Coastal Awareness Month (NCAM).   NCAM launched in April of 2005 to draw more concern to the health of our coastal environment, our most important natural asset for Tourism.

On January 24^th, 2008, the International Coral Reef Initiative officially declared 2008 International Year of the Reef  (IYOR2008), at the WorldBank in Washington, D.C.   The goal of IYOR2008 is to effectively communicate to local communities, children, tourists, governments, and even people who live far away from coral reefs, the value and importance of the world's coral reefs and the threats to the reefs' sustainability, and to motivate these target audiences to take action to protect coral reefs.

In light of this NCAM-4 initiatives will put special emphasis on coral reefs, and act as a catalyst for IYOR2008 in The Bahamas.   One such initiative is Week In Reefview .

Week In Reefview will be a TheBahamasWeekly.com featured column, as well as weekly article on how one of the key threats (climate change, habitat destruction, invasive species, pollution, overfishing) impact the coral reef ecosystem, and possible solutions to address these issues.   Articles will be submitted by representative of our various partners in both NCAM & IYOR2008 including (but not limited to) the Bahamas Environment, Science & Technology (BEST), The Nature Conservancy, BREEF, Department of Marine Resources, Grand Bahama Dive Association, COB-MESI, and other independent authors with knowledge of coral reefs.