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This publication is an outcome of the "Internatinoal Consultative Workshop for Economic Valuation and Policy Priorities for Sustainable Management of Coral Reefs" held at the WorldFish Center's Headquarters in Penang, Malaysia over the period 8-10 December 2001.|The overall goal of the workshop was to identify future directions for economic and policy research relevant to the sustainable management of coral reefs. This publication contains the workshop's overview of current issues and problems in coral reef mangement. It also includes keynote papers, and case studies of the economic valuation and socioeconomics of coral reefs and of policy instruments and management techniques for coral reefs and marine resources. The final section of this publication consists of the workshop participants recommendations for future research.

There are 23 UN agencies and conventions concerned with the freshwater resource. Their interests and mandates overlap: it is recognized that there is a need for mechanisms to bring them to common purpose. Until the UN Administrative Committee on Co-ordination (ACC) was abolished in early 2002, its Sub-committee on Water Resources (SWR) provided a co-ordination mechanism

On low lying coral islands, potable water is commonly sourced from shallow, fresh groundwater lenses. Although rainwater is also collected in tanks in the wet periods, dependence on the lense for all water needs becomes critical in dry periods. Protecting the groundwater from pollution is a major concern. In the management of reticulated supplies private land is sometimes converted to a public reserve to restrict access and use in an attempt to ensure that groundwater is protected from surface contaminants. Usually this is achieved by a lease agreement between landholders and the government utility and this arrangement can be politically, socially and economically contentious. However in the village context where private wells are still used by landholders, control of pollution sources is more practically complex, while still raising many sociocultural considerations. This paper describes