Monitoring by local community managers tightens the adaptive management cycle by linking management more closely with its evaluation, so management actions become more responsive to the field situation. Local community volunteers, usually fishers, managing coral reef protected areas in the Philippines used simple methods (e.g. snorkeling fish visual census) to periodically monitor and evaluate reef protection together with professional marine biologists. Except for estimates of hard coral, data collected by local volunteers were not significantly correlated with data collected by biologists (specifically abundance estimates of sand, major reef fish carnivores, and fish herbivores). Community-collected fish data generally have higher variance and show higher abundances than biologist-collected data. Nonetheless, though the data was less precise, the locally based monitoring identified or confirmed the need for management actions that were generic in nature (e.g. stronger enforcement, organizational strengthening, etc.). The locally based monitoring also encouraged cooperation among stakeholders and prompted a management response. Little time and financing is required after initial establishment and replication has been increasing. However, sustainability depends upon the communities' perceived added-value of undertaking the monitoring and input from a paid and/or more committed local person (e.g. government) who occasionally conducts monitoring himself/herself and supervises the community monitoring. Management impact depends heavily upon good integration with active management interventions outside the monitoring effort per se.

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In Mediterranean subtidal rocky reefs, Cystoseira spp. (Phaeophyceae) form dense canopies up to 1 m high. Such habitats, called ‘Cystoseira forests’, are regressing across the entire Mediterranean Sea due to multiple anthropogenic stressors, as are other large brown algae forests worldwide. Cystoseira forests are being replaced by structurally less complex habitats, but little information is available regarding the potential difference in the structure and composition of fish assemblages between these habitats. To fill this void, we compared necto-benthic (NB) and crypto-benthic (CB) fish assemblage structures between Cystoseira forests and two habitats usually replacing the forests (turf and barren), in two sampling regions (Corsica and Menorca). We sampled NB fish using Underwater Visual Census (UVC) and CB fish using Enclosed Anaesthetic Station Vacuuming (EASV), since UVC is known to underestimate the diversity and density of the ‘hard to spot’ CB fish. We found that both taxonomic diversity and total density of NB and CB fish were highest in Cystoseira forests and lowest in barrens, while turfs, that could be sampled only at Menorca, showed intermediate values. Conversely, total biomass of NB and CB fish did not differ between habitats because the larger average size of fish in barrens (and turfs) compensated for their lower densities. The NB families Labridae and Serranidae, and the CB families Blenniidae, Cliniidae, Gobiidae, Trypterigiidae and Scorpaenidae, were more abundant in forests. The NB taxa Diplodus spp. and Thalassoma pavo were more abundant in barrens. Our study highlights the importance of using EASV for sampling CB fish, and shows that Cystoseira forests support rich and diversified fish assemblages. This evidence suggests that the ongoing loss of Cystoseira forests may impair coastal fish assemblages and related goods and services to humans, and stresses the need to implement strategies for the successful conservation and/or recovery of marine forests.

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