Proceedings of the Caribbean Acropora Workshop : Potential Application of the U.S. Endangered Species Act as a Conservation Strategy

Abstract

The Caribbean Acropora Workshop was conceived to obtain recent information on the status of Acropora populations throughout the wider Caribbean and determine appropriate strategies to conserve these critical resources. Because the emphasis was on the potential use of the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) as a conservation tool, the majority of the participants were from the United States, including fisheries officials, resource managers and scientists from Federal, State and Territorial governments, universities and nongovernment organizations. Scientific and management expertise from a number of other countries were also represented to obtain a more regional perspective, as a determination of an endangered or threatened listing in the U.S. ESA for invertebrates requires an evaluation of the status, trends and threats affecting these species throughout their range.