Coral Triangle key part of $24tn global ocean wealth

Johnny Langenheim The Guardian 23 Apr 15;

The world’s coral reefs are a key part of $24tn (£16tn) global ocean wealth but may disappear by 2050 if global warming continues at the current rate, a new report by Worldwide Fund for Nature warns. It states the world’s ocean assets are worth $24tn, pointing out that were the ocean a country, its GDP would rank seventh in the world.

In south-east Asia’s Coral Triangle bioregion alone, 120 million people rely on reefs for their livelihoods and about 500 million worldwide. Combined with rising sea temperatures, ocean acidification is expected to irreparably damage many other marine ecosystems, while 90% of fisheries worldwide are either fully exploited or overexploited, the report says. In economic terms, this amounts to a potentially catastrophic degradation of assets.

Produced in association with the Global Change Institute (GCI) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the report says that the ocean is an economy that is failing thanks to climate change, overexploitation of natural resources and pollution.

Analysis by lead author Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of GCI and his colleagues indicates 70% of the ocean’s economic productivity relies on healthy ecosystems: fish need healthy habitats in order to grow and reproduce. But anthropogenic climate change has already created more than 400 identifiable ‘dead zones,’ where oxygen content is extremely low. The report boldly states, ‘failure to solve the climate change problem will defeat attempts to bring sustainable practices to fisheries across the world.’

Though the existing situation looks grave, WWF sets out an eight-point plan that it claims will, if rigorously implemented, ‘restore ocean assets to their full potential.’ Chief among these are three priorities: a concerted global effort to avert serious climate change, urgent protection of habitat and making ocean conservation a key sustainable development goal in the UN’s post-2015 agenda, which launches in September.

WWF is calling for an immediate commitment by coastal countries to conserve and sustainably manage 10% of the world’s coastal and marine areas, rising to 30% by 2020. But such decisions will require international coordination. “That’s the nature of the marine environment – it’s the connectivity that makes regional collaborative arrangements so important,” says John Tanzer, director of the Global Marine Programme. “Because no single country can deal with an issue like major declines in coral reefs and fisheries alone.”

Tanzer cites the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries & Food Security (CTI-CFF) – a multilateral partnership between the six Coral Triangle countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste) and NGO partners – as an example of regional cooperation. “It’s politically complex, but the Coral Triangle is such a vital resource to all of these countries. Ocean health is absolutely critical for them.”

While climate change looms large in the picture, we need to reduce other environmental stresses to a minimum so as to mitigate its impact, according to Tanzer. “Climate change at some level is inevitable – so the capacity of the marine environment to function will depend on its overall resilience.”

Protecting high value but densely populated bioregions like the Coral Triangle is a challenge WWF is keen to address. “Habitat protection in remote areas is positive of course, but the difficult path is to get that level of protection systematically implemented where it will make a difference for people in terms of health, education, food security and political stability.”

Ocean output rivals big nations' GDP, but resources eroding
Alister Doyle PlanetArk 23 Apr 15;

Ocean output rivals big nations' GDP, but resources eroding Photo: DANI CARDONA
Fish swim in the Mediterranean sea on the south coast of the Balearic island of Mallorca, Spain August 20, 2006.
Photo: DANI CARDONA

Economic output by the world's oceans is worth $2.5 trillion a year, rivaling nations such as Britain or Brazil, but marine wealth is sinking fast because of over-fishing, pollution and climate change, a study said on Thursday.

"The deterioration of the oceans has never been so fast as in the last decades," Marco Lambertini, director general of the WWF International conservation group, told Reuters of the study entitled "Reviving the Ocean Economy".

Ocean output, judged as a nation, would rank seventh behind the gross domestic product of Britain and just ahead of Brazil's on a list led by the United States and China, the study said.

The report, by WWF, the Global Change Institute at Queensland University in Australia and the Boston Consulting Group, estimated that annual "gross marine product" (GMP) was currently worth $2.5 trillion.

That included fisheries, coastal tourism, shipping lanes and the fact that the oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the air, helping to slow global warming. The study did not estimate the rate of decline in GMP.

Lambertini said the report aimed to put pressure on governments to act by casting the environment in economic terms and was a shift for the WWF beyond stressing threats to creatures such as turtles or whales.

"It's not just about wildlife, pretty animals. It is about us," he said.

The report, for instance, values carbon dioxide absorbed from the air at $39 per tonne, drawing on estimates by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to judge damage from warming such as more flooding or risks to human health.

The study estimated that total ocean assets, such as coral reefs, mangroves, shipping lanes and carbon absorption, were worth a total of $24 trillion, about 10 times annual output.

Governments have repeatedly promised, and failed, to prevent ocean degradation. A U.N. Earth Summit in South Africa in 2002, for instance, set 2015 as the goal for restoring depleted fish stocks.

Lambertini said U.N. sustainable development goals for 2030, due to be set in September, could help the oceans recover if properly implemented, along with a U.N. deal to combat climate change due at a summit in Paris in December.

He also urged governments to achieve a U.N. goal of creating protected areas to cover 10 percent of all ocean area by 2020, up from 3.4 percent now.

(Reporting By Alister Doyle; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Ocean wealth valued at US$24 trillion, but sinking fast
WWF 23 Apr 15;

The value of the ocean’s riches rivals the size of the world’s leading economies, but its resources are rapidly eroding, according to a report released by WWF today. The report, Reviving the Ocean Economy: The case for action - 2015, analyses the ocean’s role as an economic powerhouse and outlines the threats that are moving it toward collapse.

The value of key ocean assets is conservatively estimated in the report to be at least US$24 trillion. If compared to the world’s top 10 economies, the ocean would rank seventh with an annual value of goods and services of US$2.5 trillion.

The report, produced in association with The Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland and The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), is the most focused review yet of the ocean’s asset base. Reviving the Ocean Economy reveals the sea’s enormous wealth through assessments of goods and services ranging from fisheries to coastal storm protection, but the report also describes an unrelenting assault on ocean resources through over-exploitation, misuse and climate change.

“The ocean rivals the wealth of the world’s richest countries, but it is being allowed to sink to the depths of a failed economy,” said Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International. “As responsible shareholders, we cannot seriously expect to keep recklessly extracting the ocean’s valuable assets without investing in its future.”

According to the report, more than two-thirds of the annual value of the ocean relies on healthy conditions to maintain its annual economic output. Collapsing fisheries, mangrove deforestation as well as disappearing corals and seagrass are threatening the marine economic engine that secures lives and livelihoods around the world.

“Being able to quantify both the annual and asset value of the world’s oceans shows us what’s at stake in hard numbers; economically and environmentally. We hope this serves as a call for business leaders and policymakers to make wiser, more calculated decisions when it comes to shaping the future of our collective ocean economy," said Douglas Beal, Partner and Managing Director at The Boston Consulting Group.

Research presented in the report demonstrates that the ocean is changing more rapidly than at any other point in millions of years. At the same time, growth in human population and reliance on the sea makes restoring the ocean economy and its core assets a matter of global urgency.

“The ocean is at greater risk now than at any other time in recorded history. We are pulling out too many fish, dumping in too many pollutants, and warming and acidifying the ocean to a point that essential natural systems will simply stop functioning,” said Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, the report’s lead author and Director of the Global Change Institute in Australia’s University of Queensland.

Climate change is a leading cause of the ocean’s failing health. Research included in the report shows that at the current rate of warming, coral reefs that provide food, jobs and storm protection to several hundred million people will disappear completely by 2050. More than just warming waters, climate change is inducing increased ocean acidity that will take hundreds of human generations for the ocean to repair.

Over-exploitation is another major cause for the ocean’s decline, with 90 per cent of global fish stocks either over-exploited or fully exploited. The Pacific bluefin tuna population alone has dropped by 96 per cent from unfished levels.

It is not too late to reverse the troubling trends and ensure a healthy ocean that benefits people, business and nature. Reviving the Ocean Economy presents an eight-point action plan that would restore ocean resources to their full potential.

Among the most time-critical solutions presented in the report are embedding ocean recovery throughout the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, taking global action on climate change and making good on strong commitments to protect coastal and marine areas.

“The ocean feeds us, employs us, and supports our health and well-being, yet we are allowing it to collapse before our eyes. If everyday stories of the ocean’s failing health don’t inspire our leaders, perhaps a hard economic analysis will. We have serious work to do to protect the ocean starting with real global commitments on climate and sustainable development,” said Lambertini.

WWF’s global ocean campaign, Sustain Our Seas, builds on decades of work by the organization and its partners on marine conservation. WWF is working with governments, businesses and communities to encourage leaders to take urgent measures to revive the ocean economy and protect the lives and livelihoods of billions of people around the world.