"In order to improve the effectiveness of current marine conservation efforts and coral reef management, it is necessary for coastal managers and related stakeholders to understand the cultural, economic, and social dimensions of people's relationships with coral reef resources. Useful socioeconomic information is needed to improve and comprehensively enhance coral reef management and conservation. Through socioeconomic monitoring, management will identify the degree of importance that coral and related marine resources have for the livelihood of local communities, the purposes and rates of use of different resources, and the potential social, cultural and economic impacts to the local communities if the resources are degraded or damaged. In Thailand, while it is recognized that socioeconomic information is useful for adaptive management and sustainable use of resources, the lack of local capacity for conducting socioeconomic monitoring in a systematic way, like that afforded by SocMon, was identified as a major problem for which this project attempted to address"--Page 1.

Volume 1 (A and B) covers international organizations throughout the world, comprising their aims, activities and events.