| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 環境教育研究所 === 103 === ”Reef Check Foundation” is an international non-profit organization dedicated to coral reef conservation and “Reef Check” is the United Nations' official community-based reef monitoring program with volunteer teams in more than 90 countries. Public involvement, their EcoDiver Program and promoting community-based coral reef conservation are the goals of the foundation. “Reef Check Taiwan” was launched in 1997 by marine researchers, after which Taiwan Environmental Information Associaton (TEIA), a non-profit organization took over in 2009 which emphasized on public involvement in reef checking. The Reef Check is being executed in Taiwan North and East Coast, Green Island, Orchid Island, Little Liuqiu Island and Penghu Archipelago annually. "Reef Check Taiwan" performs regular health checks of the coral reefs and aims at raising public interest, awareness and also participation in marine conservation actions. However, at present, public as well as coastal and island communities’ participation are fairly limited in reach. The aim of this research is to study the development of “Reef Check Taiwan” and its potential value in fostering coral reef conservation education and a more focused promotion strategy.
The results show that the development of implementing “Reef Check’s” actions in a professional &; organized manner is hardly mature. Due to the instability of partnerships and volunteers’ participation, the expansion of their program’s &; activities’ scope remains difficult. “Reef Check Taiwan” seems to face a shortage in professional teachers and skilled workforce to design their curricula as well as a lack of an ideal strategy to eliminate these shortcomings. Although TEIA is applying a wide range of strategies to promote "Reef Check Taiwan", it remains difficult to deepen the public’s understanding of their actions. This is mainly due to their marketing activities being spread across a vast number of marine conservation issues and their lack of focus on the conservation of coral reefs. In addition the lack of the organizers’ general outreach and communication to communities makes it difficult to achieve the objectives to get local communities more involved in their operations. Based on the results of this study for the "Reef Check Tawian" organization regarding future challenges, recommendations are provided for marine education and actions to promote their activities as well as additional fields for future research.
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