Posted by Briland Modem News Team on March 15, 2001 at 06:31:43:
March 15, 2001 New York Times
World's Imperiled Shores and Coral Reefs to Get Millions in Aid
By BARBARA CROSSETTE
UNITED NATIONS, March 14 — The United Nations Foundation, created in 1997 by Ted Turner, is proposing to make its largest grant to date — $10 million — to an international campaign to save and restore the world's dwindling coral reefs.
The money would go to an alliance of private, academic and intergovernmental groups, the International Coral Reef Action Network, led by the United Nations Environment Program. Members of the network are expected to raise an additional $4 million.
The environment program says that by adding money already spent on drawing up plans as well as the income generated by the $10 million grant, the four-year project could be worth about $29 million by 2005. By then, the organizers hope, communities around the world will have taken charge of conservation and management of the reefs and endangered shorelines.
The grant is subject to approval by the United Nations Foundation's international board, due to meet on Friday. In 1997, Mr. Turner pledged to donate $1 billion in stock over 10 years for projects involving United Nations agencies. Until now, grants have been much smaller and many have gone to programs for women and girls. The foundation has been looking for substantial environmental projects to support, officers of the organization say.
Lauretta Burke, an expert on coastal ecosystems at the World Resources Institute in Washington, which is part of the project, called the prognosis for the world's reefs "pretty dire." The institute, an independent organization, did a study in 1998 that still serves as a benchmark for environmentalists.
"We found that about 60 percent of the world's coral reefs are threatened by human activities," Ms. Burke said. "In particular, we looked at coastal development, over-fishing, destructive fishing, marine pollution and sediment from inland sources. Sediment is an important threat. Many reefs are just being buried, and the sunlight is being radically reduced."
Global warming is also considered a threat to reefs. Ms. Burke said that during the warming currents of El Niño in 1997 and 1998 there was severe bleaching of many reefs, leading to the death of the coral, which is an accumulation of living organisms. Bleaching occurs when sea temperatures at least one degree centigrade above normal summer temperatures are sustained for a month or more.
"But over-fishing seems to be far and wide the most pervasive of threats," she said, adding that the institute is now preparing a detailed study of Southeast Asia, an area with the richest but most endangered reefs.
Fishing with explosives has been widespread in Southeast Asia, where a huge beach tourism industry has also brought damage to fragile coral reefs. Political turmoil and corruption have hampered conservation in the Philippines and Indonesia, which have more than 10,000 islands.
The most immediate action is planned for the Caribbean and the eastern coast of Africa. Around the Caribbean, the program hopes to set up demonstration sites in St. Lucia, Belize, Bonaire and Mexico. In East Africa, there are plans to establish model projects in the Seychelles, Madagascar and Kenya. Other sites will be focuses for early remedial work.
Projects are to follow in the South Pacific, where the environment program says that considerable work has already been done, and in Southeast Asia.
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company