Towards conservation of a globally significant ecosystem: the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (editorial)

The Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (RSGA) are renowned for their unique marine and coastal environments and species. An extreme pace of unmanaged development and a severe shortage of technical and conservation expertise threatened these globally important conservation values. Spurred to action, a period of intense activity in marine conservation, training and science by individual nations, the region, and the international donor community began in 1995. Many gains were made in marine environmental and resource management, however, this overview is confined to marine conservation. Marine conservation in the RSGA highlights the need for the most basic foundations to be laid by building political support and understanding, growing technical and management expertise, gathering relevant scientific information, and addressing the socioeconomic issues that threaten conservation values. The primary sources for much of the information presented here can be found in PERSGA (2006)