Released March 2009: Local Action Strategy Fact Sheets 

Individual LAS Fact Sheets Files:

• Background
• American Samoa
• Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas
• Florida
• Guam
• Hawai'i
• Puerto Rico
• U.S. Virgin Islands

About the Coral Reef Local Action Strategies 

In 2002, the United States Coral Reef Task Force (USCRTF) adopted the "Puerto Rico Resolution," which called for the development of three-year Local Action Strategies (LAS) by each of the members of the U.S. All Islands Coral Reef Committee to reduce threats to the Nation’s coral reef ecosystems. The USCRTF initiated the development of the LAS in partnership with the U.S. All Islands Coral Reef Committee. The LAS initiative was specifically designed to help increase and link the goals and objectives of the U.S. National Action Plan to Conserve Coral Reefs (2000) with locally driven priorities and actions. The LAS are locally-driven projects which provide for collaborative and cooperative action among Federal, state, territory, and non-governmental partners. The LAS identify and implement priority projects to reduce key threats to valuable coral reef ecosystems in each region. LAS projects in each jurisdiction have been funded by grants from NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program and local sources of funding.

Together, the LAS from the seven U.S. coral jurisdictions of American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawai’I, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, have identified over 750 projects to address primarily six priority threats to coral reef ecosystems.

The LAS goals and objectives are linked to the US National Action Plan to Conserve Coral Reefs adopted by the USCRTF in 2000. From the 13 goals identified in the National Action Plan, six threat areas were prioritized by the All Islands Committee as the focus for immediate local action:

In addition, management capacity building was identified as a key issue, and several jurisdictions have developed LAS to address other significant threats within their jurisdictions. These include population pressure in American Samoa, aquatic invasive species in Hawai’i, and maritime industry and coastal construction impacts in Florida (Table 1).

Projects and Funding

The LAS Status Report (2002-2006) provides an overview of the progress that the U.S. All Islands Coral Reef Committee, federal agencies and non-governmental partners have made over the last four years in developing and implementing Local Action Strategies (LAS) to reduce threats to the Nation’s coral reef ecosystems.

Of the 760 total projects identified in 2002-2003, 493 (65%) are currently underway or have been completed with approximately $25 million from government and non-governmental sources has been applied to project implementation. However, many projects have not yet been funded.

Challenges

Limited capacity of local agencies to manage activities that impact reefs continues to be the major challenge to increasing the scope and effectiveness of coral reef conservation efforts, particularly in the territorial and commonwealth jurisdictions.

Another challenge is the need for additional funding to complete the proposed projects. Almost $37 million, representing 60 percent of the total cost for project implementation is still needed to complete the LAS projects originally proposed.

Also, many less expensive projects were funded over larger budget items (65% of the projects), with only 40% of the required funding committed. Of particular concern is the need for additional sources of funding for large scale projects such as watershed restoration projects to address existing land based sources of pollution and the need for a marine laboratory in American Samoa for improved research on coral reef disease and health for the region.

Local Action Strategy Project Costs and Commitments
In 2003, the total estimated cost to implement all proposed LAS projects in all seven jurisdictions was $61.8 million dollars. Since then, approximately $25 million has been committed to implement these projects (FY2003-2006), which represents 40% of the total projected implementation budget needed. (Table 2)

The $25 million in committed funds is supporting the implementation of roughly 65% of all LAS projects identified. Table 2 also shows that mostly low cost projects were funded, while larger budget items were not funded. One of the major challenges of the LAS effort is the lack of funding for large scale projects such as long term monitoring of coral reefs, capital improvement projects and watershed restoration activities.

Table 2 - Overview of total LAS project numbers and costs for 4 years of implementation (FY2003-2006)



Roughly 32% of the total projects still need funds for implementation, amounting to a total of $36.8 million still needed. This includes approximately 136 LAS projects have not yet been budgeted and 112 projects which are currently partially funded but still need additional funds to fully cover implementation costs.

The $25 million that has been secured to date for LAS project implementation comes from numerous sources. This funding reaches the jurisdictions through federal grants to local agencies and other direct assistance from federal agencies, as well as through state or local agency matching funds, universities and research institutes, non-governmental organizations, national and international foundations, and private corporations. The primary sources of federal funding include NOAA, DOI, EPA, USDA/NRCS, DOJ, U.S. Forest Service, and USGS. In most cases the jurisdictions were successful in securing substantial funding from federal, state, or other sources beyond those specifically provided by NOAA for LAS purposes.

For more information on each jurisdiction's local action strategies, check out the fact sheets below.

Past Local Action Strategy Fact Sheets

American Samoa Fact Sheet
Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Fact Sheet
Florida State Fact Sheet
Guam Fact Sheet
State of Hawai'i Fact Sheet
Puerto Rico Fact Sheet
US Virgin Islands Fact Sheet