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Coral Reefs: Ecosystems of Environmental and Human Value
Coral Reefs are perhaps one type of ecosystem that is neglected more than any other and is also one of the richest in biodiversity.
Reefs are useful to the environment and to people in a number of ways. For example, they
- Protect shores from the impact of waves and from storms;
- Provide a lot of benefits to humans in the form of food and medicine;
- Provide economic benefits to local communities from tourism.
Coral Reefs Are Dying Around the World
The Status of Coral Reefs Around the World, 2004 notes that:
- 20% of the world's coral reefs have been effectively destroyed and show no immediate prospects of recovery;
- Approximately 40% of the 16% of the world's reefs that were seriously damaged in 1998 are either recovering well or have recovered;
- The report predicts that 24% of the world's reefs are under imminent risk of collapse through human pressures; and a further 26% are under a longer term threat of collapse;
— Clive Wilkinson, Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2004 [PDF format], World Wildlife Fund, p.7
A report from the World Resources Institute (WRI) in 1998 suggested that as much as 60 percent of the earth's coral reefs are threatened by human activity.
Scientists have said that as much as 95 percent of Jamaica's reefs are dying or dead.
Global Threats to Coral Reefs
All around the world, much of the world's marine biodiversity face threats from activities and events such as
- Coastal development;
- Overfishing;
- Inland pollution;
- Global climate change.
The 2004 edition of Status of Coral Reefs Around the World lists the following top 10 emerging threats (p.19) in these three categories:
- Global Change Threats
- These are:
- Coral bleaching - caused by elevated sea surface temperatures due to global climate change;
- Rising levels of CO2
- Diseases, Plagues and Invasives - linked to human disturbances in the environment.
- Direct Human Pressures
- These are:
- Over-fishing (and global market pressures) - including the use of damaging practices (bomb and cyanide fishing);
- Sediments - from poor land use, deforestation, and dredging;
- Nutrients and Chemical pollution
- Development of coastal areas - for urban, industrial, transport and tourism developments, including reclamation and mining of coral reef rock and sand beyond sustainable limits.
- The Human Dimension - Governance, Awareness and Political Will
- These are:
- Rising poverty, increasing populations, alienation from the land
- Poor capacity for management and lack of resources
- Lack of Political Will, and Oceans Governance
Climate Change Impacts; The new emerging threat
The above-mentioned Status of Coral Reefs Around the World, 2004 also notes (p. 21) that “The major emerging threat to coral reefs in the last decade has been coral bleaching and mortality associated with global climate change.”
It is believed that almost all species of corals were affected by high sea surface temperatures during 1998 which led to global coral bleaching and mortality.
2002 has been the second worst year for coral bleaching after 1998.
Scientists seem to be pessimistic about the future, with some reefs expected to vanish by 2020.
Additional scientific research, reported by Greenpeace fears climate change will eliminate reefs from many areas:
If climate change is not stopped, coral bleaching is set to steadily increase in frequency and intensity all over the world until it occurs annually by 2030 - 2070.
This would devastate coral reefs globally to such an extent that they could be eliminated from most areas of the world by 2100. Current estimates suggest that reefs could take hundreds of years to recover. The loss of these fragile ecosystems would cost billions of dollars in lost revenue from tourism and fishing industries, as well as damage to coastal regions that are currently protected by the coral reefs that line most tropical coastlines.
— Climate Change and the World's Coral Reefs, Greenpeace, 1999
Legacy of Nuclear Tests
In 1995, France started testing it's Nuclear weapons in the Pacific despite huge protests (though other nuclear nations that are often critical of other countries doing nuclear tests, such as Britain, did not criticize France). It is now emerging that the coral in the French Polynesia regions where many Nuclear tests have been carried out have been harmed, as the French atomic energy commission has admitted. This is raising concern over what else they may have failed to tell the people who have to live through it in that area.
More Information
For more information on coral reefs you could start at the following:
- Mother Jones section on Coral Reefs
- Coastal and Marine Ecosystems section from the World Resources Institute include various resources on coral reefs.
- Great Barrier Reef Marine Authority web site from Australia
- Coral Reefs Initiative from World Wildlife Fund
Where next?
Related articles
- Why Is Biodiversity Important? Who Cares?
- Loss of Biodiversity and Extinctions
- Climate Change Affects Biodiversity
- Coral Reefs
- Biosafety Protocol 1999
- Biosafety Protocol 2000
- Biodiversity Links for more Information
- Climate Change and Global Warming Introduction
- Global Dimming
- UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
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Anup Shah, Coral Reefs, GlobalIssues.org, Last updated: Tuesday, December 28, 2004
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Author and Page Information
- Created: Monday, July 20, 1998
- Last Updated: Tuesday, December 28, 2004