Coral reef scientists and policy makers from the world's most prominent coral reef nations are meeting in Australia this week to develop urgent action plans to rescue the world's richest center of marine biodiversity from gradual decline.
Human pressures on the Coral Triangle have raised grave concerns about the
future of its fish, corals and other sea life, leading to a proposal by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for joint action by six governments, scientists, agencies and environmental non-government organisations of the region.
Marine scientists from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) at James Cook University and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) are assisting the largest reef conservation program ever undertaken, known as the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security.
The Coral Triangle (CT) spans Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands, and has over 200 million inhabitants, a third of whom depend on the sea for food security or livelihood.
Spread over 5.7 million square kilometres, the CT has the highest diversity of marine life of any area on Earth. It contains three quarters of the world’s known coral species, a third of the world’s coral reefs, more than 3,000 species of fish and the world’s richest mangrove forests. It generates $2.3 billion in sea products each year and is a major spawning ground for tuna and other valuable species.
Urgent Action On International Coral Reef Crisis Urged
Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:00:00 GMT
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