SYDNEY: China's economic boom has seen its coral reefs shrink by at least 80
percent over the past 30 years, a joint Australian study found Thursday, with
researchers describing "grim" levels of damage and loss.
Scientists from the Australian
Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and the South
China Sea Institute of Oceanology said their survey of mainland China and South
China Sea reefs showed alarming degradation.
"We found that coral
abundance has declined by at least 80 percent over the past 30 years on coastal
fringing reefs along the Chinese mainland and adjoining Hainan Island,"
said the study, published in the latest edition of the journal Conservation
Biology.
"On offshore atolls and
archipelagos claimed by six countries in the South China Sea, coral cover has
declined from an average of greater than 60 percent to around 20 percent within
the past 10-15 years," it added.
Coastal development, pollution
and overfishing linked to the Asian giant's aggressive economic expansion were
the major drivers, the authors said, describing a "grim picture of
decline, degradation and destruction".
"China's ongoing economic
expansion has exacerbated many wicked environmental problems, including
widespread habitat loss due to coastal development, unsustainable levels of
fishing, and pollution," the study said.
Coral loss in the South China Sea
-- where reefs stretch across some 30,000 square kilometres -- was compounded
by poor governance stemming from competing territorial claims.
Some marine parks aimed at conservation
had been established but study author Terry Hughes said they were too small and
too far apart to arrest the decline in coral cover.
"The window of opportunity
to recover the reefs of the South China Sea is closing rapidly, given the state
of degradation revealed in this study," he said.
The South China Sea is
strategically significant, home to some of the world's most important shipping
lanes and believed to be rich in resources.
China claims most of the sea
including waters close to the shores of its neighbours. Rival claimants include
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, and tensions over the issue have
flared in recent years.
-AFP/fl
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