Coral reefs study coming

- Contributed

There is a significant knock-on effect from the destruction of coral reefs.

Donna Ortega, News Editor

AN ECONOMIC valuation study of coral reefs in three countries of the region is to be undertaken in one component of the next phase of Caribbean Planning for Adaptation to Global Climate Change (CPACC) project.

The three countries are the Bahamas, Belize and Jamaica which are the three pilot countries monitoring, under Component 5, the effects of global warming factors (temperature stress, sea-level rise and hurricanes) on coral reefs.

According to Leslie Walling, departmental project manager, CPACC, Barbados, this study would be linked to modelling of reef health and integrity.

He was speaking with The Gleaner in an interview following the CPACC Component 5 planning and technical review workshop at the Courtleigh hotel, New Kingston, on Friday.

In another-month it will be known if funding is available for valuing the reefs.

At the moment monitoring checks the percentage of coral cover that exists to judge reef health. But reefs are very complex and affected in different ways by different types of impact. Mr. Walling said, "It is important that we begin to establish quantitative links between the various impacts and reef health and integrity because the reefs deliver natural goods and services and their ability to deliver these goods and services depends on their condition."

Coral bleaching has been noticed for over ten years in the Caribbean region. Bleaching occurs when sea surface temperature rises above the threshold temperature in which corals can operate in a normal fashion. Bleached coral is weaker, susceptible to disease and can die.

The impact of global warming will continue for centuries (even if greenhouse gas emissions were reduced to zero now) but the pressure on the coral reefs can be reduced so that the reefs can be put in a position to recover, Mr. Walling said.

There is a "significant knock-on effect" from the destruction of the coral reef, Mr. Walling said.

Every coral reef has a natural breakwater so the reefs protect the shoreline from erosion, create conditions for mangroves and ecosystems to develop. The effect of a hurricane is lessened if mangroves exist.

Although the region imports fish in large quantities, natural fisheries are very important economically and socially to the Caribbean and preservation of the coral reefs supports natural fisheries.

"What we are saying is if we can model our reef, we can determine under various conditions of reef eco-system integrity and health how much goods and services they can deliver and the value of the goods and services they can deliver under those conditions," Mr. Walling explained.

The valuation would likely examine the economic value of the goods and services provided by coral reefs through tallying individual costs such as developing artificial beaches, putting in breakwater (value per cubic metre of breakwater), protection of the beach (with sandbags and other means), Mr. Walling said.

This would be an important aspect of mainstreaming climate change data, that is, feeding information into the decision-making process at the national level.

Clifford Mahlung, CPACC National Focal Point Jamaica, also pointed to the institutionalising of the monitoring programme as an important development with the agreement of the CARICOM Heads for the establishment of Mainstream Adaptation to Climate Change (MACC). MACC, to come onstream when CPACC comes to an end in December, would ensure the integration of climate change planning into national policy.

Mr. Mahlung said that there was need to urge larger emitters to get involved in the process and to reduce emissions.

He was commenting earlier in the week, on remarks by Dr. Ulric "Neville" Trotz, project manager, CPACC Barbados, about the refusal of United States President George Bush to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Mr. Bush wants developing countries and larger countries such as Brazil, India and China to be bound by the protocol.

Climate change

"We have to use very opportunity to ask the U.S. to look at climate change issues," Mr. Mahlung said. He referred to the longer dry spells being experienced in Jamaica, as well as the higher intensity and shorter duration of rainfall, combined with less percolation to give increased flooding, as cause for concern.

Dr. Trotz, said that President Bush had rejected a real compromise under the protocol in which industrial countries agreed to reduce collective GHG by at least five per cent to 1990 levels by the period 2008 to 2012, instead of the 60 per cent compared to the 1990 levels which scientists had agreed was necessary to deal with the problem. The U.S. was pushing instead for developing countries to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions, but "We (small countries like the Caribbean) go into negotiations with the attitude that we are not the culprits," he said.

Developing countries account for less than 25 per cent of total global emissions while industrialised countries accounting for 20 per cent of the world's population were responsible for more than 50 per cent of global emissions. Small island developing states collectively account for less than one per cent of global emissions.

Back to Business