Endangered coral reefs the 'wealth of the impoverished'

By Tia Goldenberg Nov 6, 2006, 16:49 GMT

Mombasa, Kenya - The drab section of coral reef off Kenya's coast is called Starfish, but there are no starfish to be found.

There are no magnificently coloured coral here. Patches of thorny sea-urchins lurk in the crevices of the reef where coral once grew and fluorescent fish once swam. Only a few fish - striped, light blue, some yellow - hang around this part of the marine park.

The starfish, like many other coral reefs, has been hit hard by the effects of climate change.

About 80 per cent of Kenya's coral reefs were devastated because of the 1998 El Nino phenomenon, which raised surface temperatures and weakened corals around the world. Scientists say climate change has made coral recovery from other menaces such as pollution and unregulated fishing more difficult.

With officials at the UN climate change conference in Nairobi this week pushing for a focus on developing countries, scientists and researchers have also warned that coral reef protection is crucial for the development of impoverished countries.

And there is a growing push for local communities to be included in the protection of East Africa's reefs, both to sustain the livelihoods of the millions of fishermen along the coast and to ensure a lucrative tourism industry doesn't suffer.

'We're looking at coral bleaching as a disaster because it will become that in terms of large populations having their livelihood eroded,' said David Obura, the head of CORDIO East Africa, a research group that looks at coral reef degradation in the Indian Ocean.

More than 20 million people live on the shores of East Africa and that number is expected to grow to 39 million by 2014.

Most of those inhabitants live off fishing or tourism - industries that are highly dependent on flourishing and colourful coral reefs, the breeding grounds for millions of fish.

Only 1 per cent of Kenya's coast is fully protected as a marine park. Marine reserves - areas where fishing is allowed but is regulated - bring that number to about five or six per cent, nowhere near the 30 per cent protection rate advocates push for.

Without more protection, destructive fishing - using dragnets and dynamite - has continued and, coupled with coral bleaching, has led to reef degradation all along the East African coast.

But Kenyan fishermen have been reluctant to work with conservation officials, often accusing them of invading their property when they try to extend protected areas.

Obura said Kenya's wildlife legislation is based on a harsh colonial system that would just grab land from unsuspecting residents. He said Kenya's fishermen feel threatened by any attempt to include them in conservation efforts.

'The big issue for coral reefs at a community level is getting some sort of local ownership in, so that people see it as something you can invest in rather than something you can just take apart,' he said in his office with ocean view just north of the port city of Mombasa.

Even Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS), the government body charged with protecting the country's bio-diversity, said it is moving towards measures that include residents in attempts to protect coral reefs, but has faced opposition from them.

'We want to encompass local participation in whatever form, but they say they have been here for ages and ages and don't want to limit how much they can fish,' said Philip Mwakio, KWS' assistant director for the country's coast region.

'They don't understand the circumstances have changed and that we must act.'

But there has been some movement towards including the community. In Diani, about 30 kilometres south of Mombasa, CORDIO helped create locally-run Diani-Chale Management Trust, which is attempting to inform fishermen and the community about the effects of their actions on coral reefs.

Further up the coast in Kiunga, near the border with Somalia, and similarly in Tanga, in north-eastern Tanzania, fishermen work with scientists to monitor the reefs, who in turn teach them why the corals should be protected.

The 12th UN Climate Change Conference, which began Monday in Nairobi, will focus on dealing with climate change.

'These coral reefs are the wealth of the impoverished,' said Christian Nelleman, a Norwegian scientist who, along with the UN environment programme, released a report ahead of the conference on coral reef recovery in the face of climate change.

'If we continue this way, hundreds of millions of people are going to lose their livelihoods.'