The newsletter of United Nations University and its international 
network of research and training centres/programmes
Issue 37: May - June 2005

FRONT PAGE

INWEH joins World Bank project on coral reefs

In an effort to better understand and protect some of the world’s most fragile ecosystems, UNU International Network on Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) will undertake one of six components of a World Bank initiative on Coral Reef Research and Capacity-Building, investigating issues of connectivity of life forms among coral reef patches.

"Connectivity" relates to the movement of items between locations – nutrients, sediments, and pollutants. In the context of coral reefs, connectivity refers to the transfer of organisms (usually waterborne larvae) between local populations, an important phenomenon to understand in order to improve reef management but also the most difficult to measure.

The formal contract to support the research, led by Dr. Peter Sale of UNU-INWEH, was concluded in March, with an initial $365,000 transferred to UNU-INWEH in early April.

 sale@uwindsor.ca

© 2005  United Nations University