Ecosystems
Likely to Cope Better with Climate Change in Less
Contaminated World
Global Programme Action Global (GPA) for the Protection
of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Sources
2nd Intergovernmental Review
Beijing/Nairobi, 19 October
2006 - The ability of coral reefs to survive in
a globally-warming world may crucially depend
on the levels of pollution to which they are exposed,
new findings indicate.
Scientists studying reefs that
were bleached in the late 11000s by high surface
sea temperatures have found a link between recovery
rates and the levels of contamination entering
coastal waters from developments on the land.
The findings, released at an
international marine pollution conference taking
place in Beijing, China, have come from a team
led by the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), Nature Seychelles—the environment wing
of the Government of the Seychelles—and scientific
and government experts from the Netherlands and
Norway.
Monitoring of corals around
the main Seychelles island of Mahé has
found that recovery rates are varying between
five to 70 per cent.
Coral reefs recovering faster
are generally those living in Marine Protected
Areas and coastal waters where the levels of pollution,
dredging and other kinds of human-induced disturbance
are considered low.
The findings are given even more urgency as a
result of new modeling. It indicates that up to
90 per cent of the tropical coasts of the world
may have been developed by 2030.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General
and UNEP Executive Director, said: “The world-wide
bleaching of tropical corals in the late 11000s
foreshadow likely impacts to come as a result
of increases in greenhouse gases. The new studies
indicate that healthy ecosystems exposed to minimal
contamination are likely to recover and survive
better than those stressed by pollution, dredging
and other human-made impacts”.
“The world-wide effort to reduce
pollution to the marine environment from land-based
sources is the Global Programme of Action (GPA)
whose second Intergovernmental Review (IGR2) is
being held here in China. Some successes are being
scored but in other areas-- like sewage; nutrients
from fertilizer run off, animal wastes and atmospheric
pollution; sediment mobilization and marine litter--
the problems are intensifying,” he added.
“There are numerous compelling
reasons for combating pollution to the marine
environment. These range from public health concerns
to the economic damage such pollution can cause
to tourism and fisheries. Climate change, and
the need to build resilience into habitats and
ecosystems so that they can cope with the anticipated
increase in temperatures likely to come, now represents
a further urgent reason to act,” added Mr Steiner.
His remarks came during the
ministerial part of the IGR2 where delegates from
some 115 countries and ministers from some 50
countries are taking part.
They also come just over two
weeks before the opening of the global warming
talks under the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change scheduled to open in Nairobi, Kenya, 6
November.
Key Findings from the New Report
Highlighting Corals
The new rapid report on coral reefs—“Our Precious
Coasts: Marine Pollution, Climate Change and Resilience
of Coastal Ecosystems”—is based on surveys of
coastal vegetation carried out in 2004.
These have been supplemented
by 120 dives at 22 sites in 2006 alongside an
overview of threats to coral reefs from pollution
and coastal development worldwide.
The work was undertaken in the
wake of the damage caused to coral reefs world-wide
in 1997-1998 when surface sea temperatures reached
up to 34 degrees Celsius.
Corals in an estimated 16 per
cent of the world’s coral reefs suffered up to
90 per cent mortality as a result of mass bleaching
according to another new publication to be launched
at the 3rd International Tropical Marine Ecosystem
Managers Symposium, 16-20 October in Cozumel,
Mexico”. See notes to editors).
Coral reefs across the Indian
Ocean including around the Comoros, La Reunion,
Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles, were
among those that were severely damaged.
Coral losses of 50 per cent
to 95 per cent were recorded including in several
marine protected areas. In St Anne Marine Protected
Area (MPA) and Bay Ternay, located in coastal
waters around Mahe, Seychelles, more than 95 per
cent of the hard corals like Acropora were dead
by 1999.
However, surveys in following
years have found that soft coral cover and stony
coral like Porites have increased rapidly in the
Bay Ternay which is the MPA least affected by
coastal development. Coral cover of soft corals
has nearly doubled annually reaching 20 per cent
by 2002. .
The 2006 dives have confirmed
the link between cleaner, less disturbed, coastal
waters and continued coral recovery and recolonisation.
Christian Nellemann, senior
officer of the response team, UNEP GRID-Arendal,
Norway, said: “Many dead reefs were overgrown
with algae and higher nutrient contents near developed
areas including surface run-off of silt which
apparently reduced re-colonization rates substantially”.
“We were well aware of the fact
that land reclamation and coastal development
could damage reefs in most tropical waters. What
is really concerning is the fact that coastal
pollution effectively may reduce the ability of
reefs to recover,” he added.
Across Asia, mangroves are being
removed at alarming rates to generate room for
hotels and coastal development. At the same time
the Indo-Pacific holds near 92 per cent of the
world’s coral reefs, the rest mainly in the Caribbean
and West Asia sites like the Persian Gulf.
Satellite images in the report
reveal that over the last 30 years, coastal development
of roads, settlements and resorts have developed
dramatically, reducing coastal vegetation, discharging
increased levels of sewage into the coastal areas
and impacting the ecosystems upon which millions,
if not billions, depend for food, materials and
livelihoods
In Asia and Eastern Africa,
up to 90 per cent of the sewage is discharged
directly into rivers and the sea. While coral
reefs may tolerate a little pollution, they have
great problems recovering from bleaching events
in polluted waters, as dead coral reefs easily
are eroded by waves or get covered in algae, that
thrive from the nutrients in sewage.
“Corals are sensitive; they
may react to just a few percent of what we consider
unhealthy nutrients in water. Even in seemingly
“clear” waters, the nutrient loads can be too
high for corals to recover”, says the report.
There is also concern that while
coral reefs may change with climate stress, they
can actually die entirely with the combined actions
of pollution, sediments and overfishing.
The conditions under which coral
reefs have flourished in the past half-million
years are dramatically changing, says the report.
Coral reefs have a natural resilience to changing
environments and ability to recover, and currently
some 23 per cent of the reefs are protected in
some way.
“However, if we fail to protect
the coastlines from unchecked piecemeal development,
or protect the water sheds from deforestation,
huge amounts of sewage and sediment loads will
reduce the ability of reefs to recover dramatically.
Once they are overgrown, it is difficult for them
to recover, and over time they change or even
die entirely”, says Nellemann.
“In the Seychelles, Acropora
corals seemed to have survived mainly in sites
with either cooler water, more current and in
sites less exposed to development and pollution
on the East Coast. The results confirm findings
and claims world-wide that land-based pollution,
reclamation, clearing of coastal vegetation and
poor sewage control can damage reefs,” says the
report.
“More importantly, they demonstrate
that protection of coastal land areas around marine
protected areas is essential for reducing local
pollution and facilitating re-colonization of
corals,” says the report.
Coral reefs support over one
million plant and animal species and are perhaps
among the most diverse ecosystems in the world,
sometime called the “rainforests of the Sea”.
Coral reefs are critical to
much of the coastal fisheries and are vital to
tourism and snorkellers all across the tropical
seas. Their annual value is projected at more
than US$30 billion.
The report further projects
that currently near 70 per cent of the tropical
coasts are developed.
This figure may rise to more
than 90 per cent in less than 25 years at current
rates of development, according to the GLOBIO-model,
a model designed by UNEP and research institutions
to project future losses of biodiversity at a
global scale from pollution, land use and development
of infrastructure.
The report was prepared by a
Rapid Response Team at UNEP GRID Arendal and UNEP
World Conservation Monitoring Centre as a broad
collaborative effort across various UNEP programmes
and activities with contributors from regional
UNEP, Offices, GRID Sioux Falls, GPA, Nature Seychelles,
Norwegian Institute of Nature Research, and the
University of Life Sciences in Norway.
Notes to Editors
Our Precious Coasts was prepared by a Rapid Response
Team at UNEP GRID Arendal and UNEP World Conservation
Monitoring Centre as a broad collaborative effort
across various UNEP programmes and activities
with contributors from regional UNEP Offices,
GRID Sioux Falls, GPA, Nature Seychelles, Norwegian
Institute of Nature Research and, University of
Life Sciences in Norway.
It is available at www.unep.org and www.grida.no
and www.globio.info together with graphics and
maps.
For press ready pdfs go to:
http://dev.grida.no/coastal/printfile/
A pdf optimized for screen display (meaning low
resolution) can be found here:
http://dev.grida.no/coastal/screenfile/
The graphics used in the report are available
as well:
http://dev.grida.no/coastal/graphics/
“Marshall, P and H. Schuttenberg (2006) A reef
manager’s guide to coral bleaching. Great Barrier
Reef Marine Park.163 pp): “in 1997-1998 alone
mass bleaching is estimated to have caused over
90% of coral mortality to 16% of the world’s coral
reefs” (publication is being launched at the 3rd
International Tropical Marine Ecosystem Managers
Symposium, 16-20th Oct in Cozumel, Mexico”
Second Intergovernmental Review Meeting of the
GPA (IGR-2)
16 - 20 October 2006, Beijing http://www.gpa.unep.org/bin/php/igr/igr2/home.php
A new UNEP supported film on coral reefs will
launch the new series of the BBC's flagship environmental
series, Earth Report, on Saturday 21 October.
Cold Coral Deep is broadcast on BBC World at the
following days and times (all times GMT): Saturday
21 October at 08:30, 13:30 (not Europe), 20:30
and Monday 01:30 (Not Asia Pacific or Southern
Africa) Please check BBC World for futher details.
For more information see http://www.tve.org/earthreport/
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson, Office of the
Executive Director
Elisabeth Waechter, UNEP Associate Media Officer
