CARIBBEAN (21 Aug 2005) -- The Caribbean's billion-dollar dive tourism industry is under serious threat from coastal and marine pollution, according to latest reports released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences (AIMS). The UNEP in its Caribbean Environment Outlook 2005 report indicated that the Caribbean currently attracts about 5.7 million of the worlds 10 million scuba divers, and that it has been estimated that by the end of this year, diving activities will begin to generate about $1.2 billon annually. Since dive tourism is a function of the quality of the regions coral reefs, permanent damage, as a result of coral bleaching and other factors, will have a direct impact on the regions tourism revenue, the UNEP report said. In its Reefs at Risk in the Caribbean 2004 report, the WRI said that about two-thirds of the Caribbeans coral reefs are threatened by coastal development, especially along the coastline of the Greater and Lesser Antilles where one-third is threatened by sediments and pollution. It said that coral reefs protect shorelines by dissipating wave energy and are an important source of white sand for many beaches. Over 80 per cent of the reefs in Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic are identified as threatened by human activities, with one-third under very high threat, the WRI said. The report also said that divers make up about 10 per cent of all visitors to the Caribbean, but contribute about 17 per cent of all tourism revenue. The average diver spends about US$2,100 per trip to the Caribbean, compared to US$1 200 for tourists in general. The WRI also reported that divers in the region have indicated a willingness to pay an average of US$25 per diver per year to keep the Caribbean coral reefs healthy. It said that in 2000, coral reefs provided annual net benefits in terms of fisheries, dive tourism, and shoreline protection services with an estimated value of between US$3.1 billion to US$4.6 billion. | | The AIMS, in its Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2004, report also confirmed that the deterioration was greater in countries like Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, where economic development is heavily dependent on the marine environment. It said further that the reefs were relatively good in small low-lying islands like The Bahamas and that Cuban reefs were among the best in the Caribbean. The AIMS recommended that conservation and any necessary restoration of the reefs should be a high priority in policy development in the region. It also recommended integrated, multidisciplinary and multisectoral approaches in planning and land use, increased involvement of fishermen in conservation, economic incentives and alternative sources of livelihoods for artisanal fishers, active management of marine protected areas, and increased ongoing environmental education in the region. In its recommendations, UNEP said: Governments are being asked to chart courses that maximise social and economic benefits, maintain or improve environmental quality and ecosystem resilience, and minimise social, economic and environmental vulnerability in the face of serious uncertainties about the future. The report further said that development issues that affect the environment are not part of local and national election agendas, and in the absence of local and national constituencies with environmental interests, effective environmental management remains far from the mainstream of the development agenda. SOURCE - UNEP, WRI |
