Financial Oxygen For Coral Reefs
Posted 23rd March 2001

WASHINGTON, DC, March 19, 2001 (ENS) - A pioneering project aimed at reversing the decline of the world's coral reefs today received the largest grant ever given by the United Nations Foundation. The foundation is donating $5 million today with a challenge to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to raise another $5 million from other sources. The UN Foundation will match whatever amount UNEP raises up to $10 million. The coral reef project could then be funded to a total of $15 million. The United Nations Foundation was established to handle distribution of the $1 billion gift presented in support of United Nations causes by media executive Ted Turner in 1997. The coral reef preservation funding announced today will go to the International Coral Reef Action Network, part of the UNEP group of organizations. It will support flagship coral reef management demonstration sites in four regional seas: the wider Caribbean, East Africa, East Asia and the South Pacific.

They will be protected from overfishing, pollution, oil spills and growing coastal populations in ways that could be models of best practices for coral reef management elsewhere in the world. Under current projections, the International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN) estimates the total costs of the four year action phase of its reef management plan at US$45 million. The world's reefs are in serious trouble. At the 9th International Coral Reef Symposium held in October 2000 on the island of Bali, Indonesia researchers told 1,500 delegates from 52 countries that more than a quarter of the world¹s coral reefs have been destroyed by pollution and global warming. They warned that unless urgent measures are taken, most of the remaining reefs could be dead in 20 years. Human impacts are placing unnatural stresses on the fragile, biologically diverse coral reef ecosystems of the world, leading to a proliferation of coral diseases, bleaching and the loss of miles of living coral. Coral reefs are being destroyed by dynamite fishing, overfishing, and thoughtless actions by boat owners who drop anchor on reefs, breaking them up. The corals are plundered by some sections of the tourist industry for curios and souvenirs. Runoff of fertilizer, sewage and soil from the adjacent land chokes the reefs, cutting off their sunlight and oxygen.

Meanwhile, rising surface sea temperatures, such as those witnessed during the El Nino event of three years ago, are aggravating the decline of coral reefs. El Nino, a natural climatic cycle in the Pacific Ocean which can raise sea temperatures, once occurred every 10 to 15 years. Now, there is growing scientific evidence that El Nino is returning far more frequently. Some researchers link this increased frequency to global warming. During the last El Nino event, up to 70 percent of Kenya's corals were bleached and damaged. Dixon Waruinge, coastal zone manager for UNEP, said East Africa's rich reefs are also under pressure from the illegal collection of tropical fish for the worldwide aquarium trade. Detailed plans for protective actions in all four regional seas will be discussed at the ICRAN Steering Committee meeting at the International Coral Reef Initiative's Coordination Planning Committee meeting in Cebu, Philippines, April 5 and 6.