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| | | Ecosystem Vitality and Biodiversity |
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| | The greatest threat to biodiversity | | | | " The greatest of all threats to biodiversity, and the most widespread human impact on coastal zones, comes from the destruction and alteration of habitats. This can happen through a wide variety of means; physical, such as draining or 'reclaiming' land, extracting sand or gravel, or the deposition of sediments from soil erosion or deforestation; chemical, such as pollution; and biological, such as invasions of alien species. | | | | Habitats, of course, have changed naturally since long before the appearance of humanity, but the sheer scale of the present onslaught is unprecedented.[...] Half of the world's wetlands were lost during the course of the twentieth century. [...] Over half of the world's mangrove forests have been lost, too. Sixty percent of them in Guinea and the Ivory Coast have been cut down, mainly for firewood and housebuilding: about 70 percent of them have been destroyed in Liberia. Seventy percent of coral reefs world-wide are threatened, while only about five percent of Europe's coastline still remains undisturbed. " | | | | GESAMP (IMO/FAO/UNESCO-IOC/WMO/WHO/IAEA/UN/UNEP Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection). 2001. A sea of troubles. Rep. Stud. GESAMP No. 70, 35 pp. ISBN 82-7701-010-9 | | | | |
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979 Topics - 5275 Related Knowledge - 11277 Members - 48 Editors |
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