Importance of Coral reef to the global environment and economy
- Coral reefs harbour the highest biodiversity of any ecosystem globally. Despite covering less than 0.1% of the ocean floor, reefs host more than one quarter of all marine fish species, in addition to many other marine animals.
- And the variety of species living on coral reefs is greater than almost anywhere else in the world. Scientists estimate that more than one million species of plants and animals are associated with coral reef ecosystems. Hence, they are also known as “rainforests of the ocean”.
- Additionally, reefs provide a wide variety of ecosystem services such as subsistence food, protection from flooding and sustaining the fishing and tourism industries. Their disappearance will therefore have economic, social and health consequences
- Coral reefs are also key indicators of global ecosystem health. They serve as an early warning sign of what may happen to other less sensitive systems, such as river deltas, if climate change is not urgently addressed.
- Once the tipping point for the survival of coral reefs is passed, the deterioration of other systems may cascade more quickly and irreversibly.
Impact of coral loss to social, cultural and economic activities.
- Coral reefs are estimated to directly support over 500 million people worldwide, who rely on them for daily subsistence, mostly in poor countries.
- A 2014 assessment published in the journal Global Environmental Change estimated the social, cultural and economic value of coral reefs at US$1 trillion.
- A 2015 study by WWF projects that the climate-related loss of reef ecosystem services will cost US$500 billion per year or more by 2100.
- Coastal ecosystems provide important shoreline stabilization services. Coral reefs dissipate wave and storm energy and create lagoons and sedimentary environments favorable for the growth of mangroves and seagrasses.
- Local economies also receive billions of dollars from visitors to reefs through diving tours, recreational fishing trips, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses based near reef ecosystems. These will be severely hit due to mass coral bleaching.
Need of the hour
- Limiting global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C, in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change, provides the only chance for the survival of coral reefs globally.
- If the agreement is fully implemented, we will likely see a decrease in atmospheric carbon concentrations. This will improve conditions for the survival of reefs, and enable other measures to rescue reefs to be successful.
- Other measures alone, such as addressing local pollution and destructive fishing practices, cannot save coral reefs without stabilised greenhouse gas emissions.
- Reinforcing commitments to the Paris Agreement must be mirrored in all other global agreements such as the Sustainable Development Goals.
- SDG 13, for instance, calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. There also needs to be a transformation of mainstream economic systems and a move towards circular economic practices.
- These are highlighted in SDG 8 (inclusive and sustainable economic growth) and SDG 12 (sustainable consumption and production patterns).
- Economic systems need to rapidly move to the low greenhouse gas emission scenario to enable global temperature decrease.
- A move away from current economic thinking should include the benefits provided by coral reefs, which are currently not taken into account in mainstream business and finance.
- Therefore, sustaining and restoring coral reefs should be treated as an asset, and long-term investments should be made for their preservation.
- Investments should also include support for research at the frontiers of biology, such as genetic selection of heat-resistant corals that can withstand rising global temperatures.
Conclusion
Monitoring, research, and restoration all are essential to safeguard coral reefs. However, to ultimately protect coral reefs, legal mechanisms are necessary. Legal mechanism involves the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs). Because MPAs have the added force of law behind them, a protected marine enclosure—such as a coral reef system—may stand a better chance for survival.
