News

Outputs from IMM-DFID's Reef Livelihoods Assessment study: New

Poverty & Reefs, Volume 1: Global Overview

Poverty & Reefs, Volume 2: Case Studies ((including Lakshdadweep Reefs, Gulf of Manar and Andaman Islands)

UNESCO Science Newsletter on Poverty & Reefs, Oct 2003

C.R.C. Sheppard: Predicted recurrences of mass coral mortality in the Indian Ocean Letter to Nature, 425, Sept 2003 New

GCRMN South Asia database launched, March 2003!

GCRMN South Asia Newsletter, May 2002

Sri Lanka Coral Forum newsletter, 1st edition, May 2002

Sri Lanka Coral Forum newsletter, 2nd edition, December 2002

Maldives Coral Forum newsletter, July 2002

The Status of Worlds Coral Reefs 2002 launched

Get the report from the AIMS website!

The Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2002, the third in a series of biennial updates on the status of coral reefs worldwide, was released in Stockholm on December 6, 2002. This report, edited by Dr. Clive Wilkinson of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, includes input from 151 authors from over 80 countries. The report is produced by the GCRMN, co-sponsored by IOC/UNESCO, IUCN, UNEP and World Bank, with assistance from partners of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI).

Abstract: The 2002 report on the status of the world’s coral reefs is a mix of bad news and good news, but there is strong evidence that the corner is being turned in our ability to stop reef decline, provided this continues to be supported by sufficient political will. We can predict gains in coral reef health at specific sites in many regions within the coming 2 decades. Many different projects are reducing the damaging human impacts on coral reefs and also setting more reefs aside for protection. Unfortunately, a large proportion of the world’s reefs are outside protected areas, and much effort will be needed to replicate the small-scale successes at national and regional scales. In addition, many coral reef countries do not have national coral reef programs or monitoring plans, and are often unaware of the extent of damage to their reefs.

Press release: World's Coral Reefs are recovering but for how much longer? (UNESCO, Paris, 11 December 2002)

A report on the health of the world's coral reefs just published shows that some of the areas worst hit by massive bleaching in 1997-98 have begun to recover. And the greatest progress has been in reefs safeguarded as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). A main threat to coral reefs, says the report, continues to come from humans. But the report also warns that this year's developing El Nino -an unusual warming of the surface of the tropical Pacific that caused most of the serious 1997-98 global bleaching events - could cause a new setback in recovery. According to the report, coral reefs provide "goods and services" worth an estimated US$ 375 billion per year (e.g. fish, tourism, coastal protection, etc), while 500 million people depend totally or partially on reefs that are being damaged.

The 378-page global report, entitled Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2002 and published through the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), was prepared by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), a network of, governments, institutes and NGOs from over 80 countries. UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) is one of the network's sponsors and implementing agencies. GCRMN has been updating its survey every two years since the first report was published in 1998, with contributions from some 150 authors from more than 100 countries.

Bleaching occurs when calciferous coral colonies reject the microscopic algae that live in symbiosis with them, providing essential nutrients with the aid of sunlight, in exchange for shelter. Even a one-degree centigrade increase in water temperature is enough to trigger the bleaching process. In 1997-98 the worst El Nino on record, which caused hotter, drier weather in some parts of the world, was followed by mass bleaching, severely damaging some 16% of the world's coral reefs. Now, according to the report, about half of these reefs are showing signs of "slow to moderate recovery." New corals are settling on reefs along the coasts of East Africa and the Comoros, especially in Marine Protected Areas (defined by the World Conservation Union as areas "reserved by law or other effective means to protect part or all of the enclosed environment"). There has also been "stronger recovery" in the Maldives, the Lakshadweeps (off the south coast of India) and Palau, where there is little direct human impact.

Some 21 coral reefs are listed within UNESCO's Man and Biosphere (MAB) programme and a further 15 are World Natural Heritage Sites, giving governments obligations to provide minimum safeguards and to manage them sustainably. Some of these sites involve local communities in reef management and sustainable fishing practices.

But the picture is not so rosy everywhere. Recovery in the Seychelles, Sri Lanka, the Indian mainland and some parts of Southeast Asia is "slow or barely evident." High levels of sediment transport, nutrient pollution, over-fishing and destructive fishing practices all put a stress on corals that slows their recovery. In Southeast Asia, the economic crash of 1998 put additional stress on the reefs, when city-dwellers returned to their home villages on the coast in the hope of making a living from natural resources. In many reefs, local fishermen still use dynamite and cyanide to stun the fish. In some parts of Southeast Asia and East Africa, though, communities are taking an active part in managing and monitoring their reefs, thanks to awareness-raising initiatives, particularly by NGOs.

The most serious threat to coral reef ecosystems is now the combined impact of stress from human activities and climate change. This year's developing El Nino could create a new set-back for the reefs. And while El Nino previously has occurred in natural cycles of 7 to 11 years, it has become more frequent in the past few decades, possibly as a result of global warming. At a briefing in UNESCO Headquarters last week, Clive Wilkinson, Global Co-ordinator of GCRMN at the Australian Institute of Marine Science and editor of the latest survey, warned, "even the best management will not stop global warming killing reefs. But if you have good management, especially fish management, the recovery will be much better."

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Copies of the report can be obtained through the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS): http://www.aims.gov.au; the World Conservation Union (IUCN): http://www.iucn.org; the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO: http://www.ioc.unesco.org.

See also the International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN) (http://www.icran.org) and ReefBase (http://www.reefbase.org).

See also a new guide to coral reefs in UNESCO Biosphere Reserves, World Heritage sites and RAMSAR Convention sites: Coral Reef Protected Areas in International Instruments. Edited by Bernard Salvat, Jessica Haapkylä and Muriel Schrimm. CRIOBE-EPHE, Moorea, French Polynesia (obtainable through UNESCO).

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Contact:
Peter Coles
Bureau of Public Information, Editorial Section
Tel: +33 (0)1 4568 1710
p.coles@unesco.org