What's New @ Ramsar

Reefs at Risk newly published

"Although they occupy less than one quarter of 1 percent of the marine environment, coral reefs are home to more than a quarter of all known marine fish species. These habitats have been called the rainforests of the marine world." So begins the introduction to an excellent new book from the World Resources Institute (WRI), co-published by the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM), the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC), and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

Entitled Reefs at Risk: a Map-Based Indicator of Threats to the World’s Coral Reefs, by Dirk Bryant, Lauretta Burke, John McManus, Mark Spalding, and a very large number of additional contributers, the 56-page softcover full-color report presents a detailed analysis of threats to and pressures upon the world’s coral reefs, with informative maps and decorative photographs on almost every page.

This reprint of the text of the KEY FINDINGS page (page 6) gives a flavor of the approach taken and the conclusions drawn:

This report presents the first-ever detailed, map-based assessment of potential threats to coral reef ecosystems around the world. "Reefs at Risk" draws on 14 data sets (including maps of land cover, ports, settlements, and shipping lanes), information on 800 sites known to be degraded by people, and scientific expertise to model areas where reef degradation is predicted to occur, given existing human pressures on these areas. Results are an indicator of potential threat (risk), not a measure of actual condition. In some places, particularly where good management is practiced, reefs may be at risk but remain relatively healthy. In others, this indicator underestimates the degree to which reefs are threatened and degraded. Our results indicate that:

• Fifty-eight percent of the world's reefs are potentially threatened by human activity -- ranging from coastal development and destructive fishing practices to overexploitation of resources, marine pollution, and runoff from inland deforestation and farming.
• Coral reefs of Southeast Asia, the most species-rich on earth, are the most threatened of any region. More than 80 percent are at risk (under medium and high potential threat), and over half are at high risk, primarily from coastal development and fishing-related pressures.
• Overexploitation and coastal development pose the greatest potential threat of the four risk categories considered in this study. Each, individually, affects a third of all reefs.
• The Pacific, which houses more reef area than any other region, is also the least threatened. About 60 percent of reefs here are at low risk.
• Outside of the Pacific, 70 percent of all reefs are at risk.
• At least 11 percent of the world’s coral reefs contain high levels of reef fish biodiversity and are under high threat from human activities. These "hot spot" areas include almost all Philippine reefs, and coral communities off the coasts of Indonesia, Tanzania, the Comoros, and the lesser Antilles in the Caribbean.
• Almost half a billion people -- 8 percent of the total global population -- live within 100 kilometers of a coral reef.
• Globally, more than 400 marine parks, sanctuaries, and reserves (marine protected areas) contain coral reefs. Most of these sites are very small -- more than 150 are under one square kilometer in size.
• At least 40 countries lack any marine protected areas for conserving their coral reef systems.

For ordering information please consult the World Resources Institute, 1709 New York Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20006 USA (http://www.wri.org/).

For further information about the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, please contact the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ramsar@ramsar.org). Posted 24 July 1998, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.