SE Asia's reefs threatened by overfishing, pollution
SE Asia's reefs threatened by overfishing, pollution
Sean Yoong, Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
About 88 percent of Southeast Asia's coral reefs - considered among world's most important and extensive reef systems - are severely threatened by human activities such as overfishing and pollution, a U.S.-based environmental group said Wednesday.
The threatened reefs are mainly in Indonesia and the Philippines, which hold 77 percent of the region's nearly 100,000 square kilometers of coral reefs, the Washington-based World Resources Institute said in a statement issued in Malaysia.
More than 85 percent of reefs in Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam were also endangered, the institute said, citing results of a recent analysis released in the United States last month. Some of the research was conducted in Malaysia's eastern Sabah state on Borneo island.
Coral reefs were important to the economic and social fabric of Southeast Asia, "yet they are the most threatened reefs in the world." researcher Lauretta Burke said in the statement.
The research was compiled over the past four years by 35 scientists from across Southeast Asia, the United States, Australia and Britain. Southeast Asia has 34 percent of the world's reefs, including more than 600 of the world's 800 known reef-building coral species.
In its statement, the institute said that Southeast Asia was considered the "global epicenter of marine diversity", since the area surrounding a single island here could yield a higher variety of reef-building coral species compared to all the reefs in the Caribbean.
Overfishing was found to be the "most pervasive threat" to coral reefs, ranking above coastal development, marine pollution, sedimentation from inland activities, and destructive fishing practices such as the use of poison and dynamites.
The institute said overfishing should be reduced by developing alternative livelihoods for fishermen.
Southeast Asian governments should expand the protected areas network for coral reefs, the institute said. About 8 percent of the region's reefs are currently in marine protected areas.
The report also called for the regulation of international trade in live reef organisms, which exceeds US$1 billion per year, with Southeast Asia supplying nearly all of the world's live reef food fish.