In news- Global warming helped wipe out 14 percent of the world’s coral reefs between 2009 and 2018, according to a recent Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network report.
Key updates-
- The report spanned data for 40 years, 73 countries and 12,000 sites and found the total area destroyed equal to about 11,700 square kilometres.
- Corals in South Asia and the Pacific, around the Arabian Peninsula, and off the coast of Australia, were the hardest hit.
- The reef loss was mainly the result of coral bleaching, overfishing, unsustainable coastal development and declining water quality.
- A single so-called bleaching event in 1998 caused by warming waters wiped out 8 percent of all corals.
- East and Southeast Asia’s Coral Triangle, which contains nearly 30 percent of the world’s coral reefs, were hit less hard by the warming waters and in some cases showed recovery.
- This resilience could be due to species unique to the region, potentially offering strategies for boosting coral growth elsewhere.
International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI)-
- It is an informal partnership between Nations and organizations which strives to preserve coral reefs and related ecosystems around the world.
- The Initiative was founded in 1994 by eight governments: Australia, France, Japan, Jamaica, the Philippines, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
- It was announced at the First Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in December 1994, and at the high level segment of the Intersessional Meeting of the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development in April 1995.
- ICRI now has over 90 members.
- Its decisions are not binding on its members.
ICRI’s objectives are to:
- Encourage the adoption of best practice in sustainable management of coral reefs and associated ecosystems
- Build capacity
- Raise awareness at all levels on the plight of coral reefs around the world
Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN)-
- It was established by the ICRI in 1995, with the primary task of reporting on the condition of the world’s coral reefs in the context of the development of the ICRI ‘Call to Action’.
- The role of the GCRMN is to provide this coral reef data, aggregating from national to regional levels, and then to a global level.
Source: Newspaper
