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The plight of the planet's coral reefs—and how you can help |
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To help save coral reefs worldwide, get active with these groups: International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management IUCN, The World Conservation Union Professional Association of Diving Instructors - Project A.W.A.R.E (PADI) Foundation World Conservation Monitoring Centre
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The biologists have seen the future, and their message could not be clearer: Living coral reefs are the foundation of marine life, and thus a crucial support for human life, yet all over the world they are dead or dying because people are destroying them—killing them—at a catastrophic rate. Already 10 percent are lost, and scientists say 70 percent of all corals on the planet will be destroyed in 20 to 40 years unless people stop doing what they're doing—pollution, sewage, erosion, cyanide fishing, clumsy tourism—and get serious about saving the coral reefs now. There's hope yet: Reefs are resilient and they bounce back quickly when protected. It's protection that's the real trick—and it's ordinary people who are making it happen. Government efforts in much of the world have been frankly pathetic: late, weak, underfunded, unenforced. Persian Gulf oil states pass toothless pollution laws then ignore them. Indian Ocean poachers outwit and outnumber British Royal Navy patrols. Ecuador stalls for decades while tourism explodes in the delicate Galapagos, only to enact a plan that makes it worse. The status quo scarcely wavers: relentless destruction of coral reefs. In those bright spots where people are changing the way they treat the reefs, you'll find fishermen, students, divers, biologists, concerned citizens of all stripes transformed into activists and volunteers, taking matters into their own hands to protect the coral reefs that are dear to them and vital to us all. It was Key West dive operators who launched Reef Relief to keep ship anchors off Florida's dying reefs. It was a lone Pacific Islands environmental consultant who crusaded to restore the giant clam to Tonga's depleted reefs. And it was a passel of marine scientists, alarmed by their findings and frustrated with government inaction, who launched last year's International Year of the Reef, a global research and education program to spur coral conservation efforts and reverse the trend of destruction. Their call to action has made a difference: Conservationists and governments worldwide made launched the International Coral Reef Initiative in 1997, and the United Nations followed their lead and declared 1998 the International Year of the Ocean.
In honor of these people, and in service to the recovery of our coral reefs, the MoJo Wire presents the first installment of the Mother Jones Action AtlasTM: Coral Reefs. It's the first comprehensive look at the state of the world's reefs that shows what you can do to help. Click to learn more about the threats to reefs in more than 90 countries. Click again to reach the people who are doing the vital work of saving those reefs. Then get involved.
NGO Directory courtesy of Coral Reef Alliance
Photo Acknowledgements: |
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