2008 Pacific Year of the Reef - October 11, 2007
"Strong reefs, strong islands", is the slogan for the 2008 Pacific year of the Reef. It was endorsed at the eighteenth Secretariat of the Pacific Environmental Programme (SPREP) Meeting of officials in Apia this year. The Pacific has embraced the 2008 International Year of the Reef, an International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI).
The Pacific Ocean is home to over 75 percent of the World’s reefs that are now under threat. From 1968 to 2004, approximately 600 square miles of coral reef has disappeared each year. Since 1995, the rate of this disappearance has doubled.
From the 22nd to the 26th of October, Alotau in Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea will host the 8th Pacific Islands Conference on Nature Conservation and Protected Areas. The Pacific Year of the Reef campaign will be explained with an information session at the conference in order to get feedback and ideas from Pacific participants. The official launch of the Pacific Year of the Reef by SPREP will be in February next year.
"The last Pacific Year of the Reef was in 1997, our main purpose then was to raise awareness of the coral reef," explained SPREP’s Coral Reef Management Officer, Caroline Vieux.
"For 2008 we cant do the same thing, raise awareness. We are at a point where there is a major need for action. Research shows that in the next thirty to fifty years, we’re not going to have a reef at all. We need to focus on taking action to save our reef."
The disappearance of the reef will impact significantly upon Pacific communities, the coral reef provides between $10,000 and $100,000 per year in economic benefits to nearby communities. Cyclones, nutrient pollutions and warmer temperatures that lead to coral bleaching, are several causes of dead coral.
"We really want to integrate this Pacific Year of the Reef in the context of climate change. We really want people to know that adaptation to climate change is not only about building infrastructure, one of the best ways to adapt is to maintain a healthy coral reef"
Contact Name: Caroline Vieux
E-mail: carolinev@sprep.org
Phone: (685) 21929
Fax: (685) 20231
