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Attaining Aichi Target 11: How Well Are Marine Ecosystem Services Covered by Protected Areas?

November 1, 2014

The spatial coverage of marine and coastal protected areas worldwide has shown a rapid increase in recent years. Over 32% of the world's coral reefs and over 36% of the world's mangrove forests now fall within protected areas. However, simple measures of extent are insufficient for assessing progress toward achieving global targets. Notably, the CBD Aichi Target 11 calls for 'at least 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water areas, and 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services' to be protected. There is, therefore, an urgent need to assess how well protected areas cover these areas of importance for ecosystem services.

Reefs at Risk Revisited

February 1, 2011

Updates estimated threats to coral reefs from human activities, such as overfishing and coastal development, as well as global climate change by type of threat and region. Outlines social and economic implications and approaches to sustainable management.

Coastal Capital: Dominican Republic: Case Studies on the Economic Value of Coastal Ecosystems in the Dominican Republic

April 30, 2010

Illustrates the benefits coralline beaches, reefs, and mangroves in various parts of the country offer, including providing protection against beach erosion, habitats for fisheries, potential tourism growth in protected marine areas, and local tourism.

Coastal Capital -- Economic Valuation of Coral Reefs in Tobago and St. Lucia

June 30, 2008

Presents findings on the economic benefits of coral reefs to the local economies of Tobago and St. Lucia, using a new, broadly applicable methodology that focuses on benefits to tourism, fisheries, and shoreline protection. Includes policy applications.

Reefs at Risk in the Caribbean

January 1, 2004

Utilizes GIS data to determine reef degradation throughout the entire Caribbean from four primary sources, including coastal developments, water-based sediment and pollution coming from fertilizers from farms, marine based pollution, and over fishing.

Reefs at Risk in Southeast Asia

January 1, 2002

Draws on detailed information to analyze current threats to coral reefs across Southeast Asia and provides an economic valuation of what will be lost if destructive fishing, over-fishing, and marine based and inland pollution coastal development continue.

Reefs at Risk: A Map-Based Indicator of Threats to the Worlds Coral Reefs

January 1, 1998

This report presents the first-ever detailed, map-based assessment of potential threats to coral reef ecosystems around the world. "Reefs at Risk" draws on 14 data sets (including maps of land cover, ports, settle-ments, and shipping lanes), information on 800 sites known to be degraded by people, and scientific expertise to model areas where reef degradation is predicted to occur, given existing human pressures on these areas. Results are an indicator of potential threat (risk), not a measure of actual condition. In some places, particularly where good management is practiced, reefs may be at risk but remain relatively healthy. In others, this indicator underestimates the degree to which reefs are threatened and degraded.Our results indicate that:Fifty-eight percent of the world's reefs are poten-tially threatened by human activity -- ranging from coastal development and destructive fishing practices to overexploitation of resources, marine pollution, and runoff from inland deforestation and farming.Coral reefs of Asia (Southeastern); the most species-rich on earth, are the most threatened of any region. More than 80 percent are at risk (undermedium and high potential threat), and over half are at high risk, primarily from coastal development and fishing-related pressures.Overexploitation and coastal development pose the greatest potential threat of the four risk categories considered in this study. Each, individually, affects a third of all reefs.The Pacific, which houses more reef area than any other region, is also the least threatened. About 60 percent of reefs here are at low risk.Outside of the Pacific, 70 percent of all reefs are at risk.At least 11 percent of the world's coral reefs contain high levels of reef fish biodiversity and are under high threat from human activities. These "hot spot" areas include almost all Philippine reefs, and coral communities off the coasts of Asia, the Comoros, and the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean.Almost half a billion people -- 8 percent of the total global population -- live within 100 kilometers of a coral reef.Globally, more than 400 marine parks, sanctuaries, and reserves (marine protected areas) contain coral reefs. Most of these sites are very small -- more than 150 are under one square kilometer in size. At least 40 countries lack any marine protected areas for conserving their coral reef systems.