Status of Coral Reefs of the World 2000

Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2000
conducted since the early 1990s show declines in coral cover which are probably due to
cyclones and/or bleaching events.
Coral Reef Knowledge
For large areas of this Polynesia Mana node, most scientific knowledge on reef status is
relatively recent. The reefs of French Polynesia are the best studied because of many
research programmes and institutions (CRIOBE-EPHE, Moorea, University of French
Polynesia, and ORSTOM-IRD in Tahiti), and scientific publications continue to increase
through the past three decades. There was previously a research station on Fanning Island,
Kiribati directed by the University of Hawaii. There are small stations now on Tarawa and
Tonga in association with the University of the South Pacific. There is limited information on
past events such as cyclones, crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks, bleaching, major pollution
etc. throughout the region. Most of the knowledge continues to be based on surveys by
outside scientists, teams or organisations because there is under-developed national
capacity even though all members of Polynesian society rely on reefs for direct or indirect
food and cash income streams.
Most islands in this area are remote without urban concentrations, so the majority of reefs
are in good condition, although this impression is based on spotty information. Compared
to other regions of the world, these reefs are amongst the least degraded and under
minimal pressures from human and land influences (e.g. few rivers, low terrestrial
sedimentation). However, there are increasing anthropogenic pressures on reefs and
islands where populations are concentrated, and which will damage the reefs if no
management action is undertaken. The major damage is caused by shoreline modification
(retaining walls, dredging of channels, mining of coral and sand) which impacts directly on
nearby fringing reefs. Irrespective of this localised damage to nearshore reefs, the outer reef
slopes are generally healthy except for reduced fish populations due to fishing pressure.
‘REEFS AT RISK’
This 1998 report from the World Resources Institute indicated that Pacific reefs were
more healthy and under much lower levels of anthropogenic stress than all other regions.
The wider Pacific region, (including those bordering the Pacific Ocean: Japan, East
Australia, East Pacific coast) contains 60% of reefs considered to be ‘low risk’, as
compared to other coral reefs areas, e.g. South East Asia which as about only about 20%
of the reefs at low risk, and 40–50% low risk reefs throughout the Indian Ocean,
Caribbean and Middle East. In the Polynesia Mana region, over 50% of the reefs are not
threatened by risks in the near future with the exception of impacts from global climate
change. The only two ‘red’ points indicating high estimates of threat to the coral reefs in
this region are Tonga and Christmas Islands. The threat on Tonga is due to the urban
impacts of Tongatapu, and a similar case could be made for Papeete on Tahiti. Threats for
Christmas Island include past nuclear tests, but testing by the United Kingdom ceased in
1958 and by the United States in 1962. At present the only impacts to reefs on
Christmas are from small tourist operations (1,712 tourists in 1995).
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