Int’l funding needed to protect coral reefs – Johnson

Jamaican High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK), His Excellency Anthony Johnson, has called for more international funds to be dedicated on concessional terms for the protection and restoration of the world’s coral reefs.

He said that preservation of coral reefs is important to the tourism industry in the Caribbean and funds are needed to ensure that regional Governments had the means to take protective action to reduce reef damage.

The High Commissioner was speaking at a function hosted by the World Resources Institute (WRI) at the Royal Society in London on February 23 to launch the ‘Reefs at Risk Revisited’ report.

The document is an update of the 1998 “Reefs at Risk” report and was compiled by the WRI, in collaboration with more than 25 other organisations and institutions.

The study evaluates threats to the world’s coral reefs from a wide range of human activities and includes an assessment of climate-related hazards. It also contains a global assessment of the vulnerability of nations and territories to coral reef degradation based on their dependence on coral reefs and their capacity to adapt.

Reefs at Risk Revisited’ presents an alarming picture of the state of the world’s reefs, stating that 75 per cent of them are seriously threatened by overfishing, pollution and climate change.The greatest pressure on coral reefs appears to be in Southeast Asia, where nearly 95 per cent are at risk.

In its assessment of the Caribbean, the report says that corals across this region have been in decline for several decades, which it blames on overfishing.

It says that the least-threatened reefs are almost entirely in areas remote from large land areas, such as the Bahamas, the southern Gulf of Mexico, and the oceanic reefs of Honduras and Nicaragua.

The insular Caribbean is particularly threatened, from Jamaica through to the Lesser Antilles, where more than 90 per cent of all reefs are threatened, with nearly 70 per cent classified as high or very high threat.Two nations in the Caribbean – Grenada and Haiti – are among the most socially and economically vulnerable if the reefs are degraded or lost.

The countries highest on the risk register are Comoros, Fiji, Haiti, Grenada, Indonesia, Kiribati, Philippines, Tanzania and Vanuatu.

The report acknowledges the region’s dependence on reefs for food and employment and the sustainability of the tourism sector.

“Most tourism is concentrated on the coast, a significant portion of which is directly reef-related, with snorkelling and scuba diving among the most popular activities.  The reefs play a hidden role: providing food, protecting coastlines and providing for beaches,” it says.

The report can be read on the WRI website: www.wri.org

CONACT: DAMON MILLS

                JIS LONDON