=== "Viaggio nel Blu" - Diving Center ===

Scientific direction by:

Marine Science Group

www.marinesciencegroup.org

Università di Bologna

www.unibo.it

The Value of Environmental Monitoring

A priority and intrinsic objective of the environmental and cultural policies of local, regional, national, and international governments is the conservation of biodiversity and the balanced management of natural resources (Convention on Biological Diversity – Directive 92/43/EEC, May 21, 1992). The wide scale geographical monitoring of the components of biodiversity is one of the eight priority actions identified by the Rio de Janeiro Convention on Biological Diversity (De Fontaubert et al. 1996; Baird et al. 2000; Danielsen et al. 2000). Monitoring and quantifying alterations in resources over time and space furnish the guide lines for biological diversity management (Sheil 2001). Studies by Schmitt and Sullivan (1996), Fore et al. (2001), Newman et al. (2003) underline the fact that citizens can be adequately trained to collect reliable data and to perform assessments comparable to the same work done by professionals and at a lower cost; an important component when we consider how expensive monitoring the environment over time and on a wide geographical scale can be. Medio et al. (1997), Bryskle (2002) and Goffredo et al. (2004) also pointed out the important educational value of involving the general public in conservation efforts such as monitoring the environment because it raises awareness of the problems inherent in preserving our natural resources. Raised awareness also positively influences people’s behavior which can lead to reducing negative impact on the environment (Medio 1997; Bryskle 2002).

The Red Sea Project

Tourism, in the Red Sea’s politically more secure areas, has grown steadily since the 1970’s and has reached the point of becoming an essential part of the region’s economy. Hawkins and Roberts (1994) estimated that sleeping accommodations for tourists along the Red Sea’s Egyptian coasts will break the one hundred thousand mark in the year 2005 (roughly two million visitors a year). Sinai’s southern coast around Sharm el Sheikh is one of the most popular areas. Sources from the Egyptian Tourist Authority confirm that 25% of tourism in that area is made up of recreational scuba divers especially around the coral reef of Ras Mohamed National Park (see Hawkins e Roberts 1992). Hawkins e Roberts (1994) also state that the economic impact of tourism alone should encourage local and national governments to work to protect the coral reef and to guarantee a coordinated and sustainable development of tourism that will not threaten the existing ecosystems. Medio et al. (1997), in a brilliant study conducted in Ras Mohammed National Park, demonstrated that pre-dive briefings on the delicate nature of coral ecosystems and on underwater neutral buoyancy techniques can improve recreational divers’ behavior decreasing impact on the reef by 93%. Over the five-year period of study in the Mediterranean project, the innovative monitoring method introduced by the University of Bologna’s Marine Science Group in 1999 attracted thousands of divers and proved not only that they were interested in participating in biological monitoring but that, once trained, they were capable of collecting an impressive amount of reliable data (Goffredo et al. 2004, Annexes A and B). “STE: Scuba Tourism for the Environment – Red Sea Biodiversity Monitoring Program,” whose goals are to:

- involve dive tourists in the collection of data on the marine biodiversity in the area of Sharm el Sheikh and the Egyptian Red Sea;

- promote environmental education to tourists;

- contribute to the development of sustainable tourism;

fits in perfectly as successor to the Marine Science Group’s (Department of Evolutionary Biology of the University of Bologna) previous projects for its scientific continuity and work in the same context of innovative actions in the fields of environmental monitoring and naturalistic educations. The joining of the academic world to a socio-economic one, “Scuba Tourism for the Environment” could very well become a model for interdisciplinary scientific work aimed at developing a system through which nature’s demands and those of mankind may both be met.

Viaggio nel Blu is active like Field Station, that it participates to the collection of the data and where you will find the survey cards. Viaggio nel Blu will be taken care that is in particular of 3 situated ones of Dive's point and:

Thomas Reef - Tiran Island
Yolanda Reef - Ras Mohammed
Canyon - Dahab

To the Diving you will found the Cards of Survey and the Staff will suggest you to compile them of continuation instead will publish the survey photos Here numbering them and dating them in order to make that all can effectively “see” the changes.