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Home: USES: Human Settlements on the Coast: Destruction of Habitats: Types of Habitats: Coral Reefs
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 Related Knowledge (37)
 Topic Overview
 ID# : 2549
 Visits: 3531
 Added: 01-Jan-2000
 Updated: 01-Dec-2006
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 Editors
 UNEP - WCMC
 Jacob Nganyi
 UNEP - GPA
 WMO
 JOANA AKROFI
 
 
 
 
Coral Reefs
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Some 60 percent at risk
 
Although coral 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. They provide food, livelihood and other essential services for hundreds of millions of coastal dwellers, most in developing countries, whether as critical fish habitat, popular destinations for ecotourism, living space, or protection to coastal communities from storms and hurricanes. At least 500 million people live within 100 km of a coral reef, most of them in the South East Asian region, around the Indian Ocean, and in the Caribbean. Globally, coral reef fisheries support 30 to 40 million people.
 
Alarmingly, reefs around the world are in a state of rapid decline, and the trend of decline in coral reefs is currently intensifying. The Reefs at Risk study, released in mid-1998 jointly by UNEP, ICLARM, the World Resources Institute and the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, shows that as much as 60 percent of the reefs are at risk from overfishing, destructive fishing, pollution and sedimentation from the erosion of coastal lands. "Coral reefs may be the ecosystem equivalent of the canary in the coal mine, giving early warning that the world's ecosystems can no longer cope with growing human impacts," says Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's Executive Director.
 
Based on: information from UNEP's Unit for the International Coral Reef Network   See More...
 
 
 
 
All   (37) News   (6) Websites   (7) Documents   (6) Books   (12) Multimedia   (3) Projects   (1) Contacts   (1) Institutional Contact   (1)
  7 Websites 
  
An overview of Climate Change and the Great Barrier Reef Climate Change and the Great Barrier Reef An overview of Climate Change and the Great Barrier Reef 
Information on the protection and study of coral reefs Coral Reef Alliance Information on the protection and study of coral reefs 
Conserving what we have as well as we can has become the greatest of all challenges to face humanity. This website is Veron's contribution towards this formidable task. Coral Reef Research Conserving what we have as well as we can has become the greatest of all challe...  
Website of the GBRMPA, the principal adviser to the Commonwealth Government on the care and development of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) Website of the GBRMPA, the principal adviser to the Commonwealth Government on ...  
The Millennium Coral Reef Mapping Project: Understanding, classifiying and mapping coral reef structures worldwide using high resolution remote sensing spaceborne images. Millennium Coral Reef Mapping Project The Millennium Coral Reef Mapping Project: Understanding, classifiying and mapp...  
The largest community-based coral reef monitoring program in Australia. Reef Check Australia The largest community-based coral reef monitoring program in Australia....  
Designed to help increase effective conservation action in the Pacific Islands, the Inventory of Regional Conservation Activities is a living record of conservation activities of key actors in this region The Pacific Islands Roundtable for nature conservation Designed to help increase effective conservation action in the Pacific Islands,...  
979 Topics - 5229 Related Knowledge - 11257 Members - 47 Editors
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