Coasts in Crisis
Coastal areas are staggering under an onslaught of human activity. We are presently in the process of destroying 70 percent of the world`s 600,000 square kilometers of coral reefs, an ecosystem containing some 200,000 different species and rivaling tropical rain forests in biodiversity. A combination of pollution, habitat destruction, and gross overfishing has led to the collapse of major fisheries and paved the way for malnutrition and disease in regions where people fish for subsistence. Globally, little is being done to manage the crisis of our coasts. Management strategies, if they exist at all, often deal with economic development along a wafer-thin strip of coastal land. Resource degradation is ignored, and watershed management is mostly rhetoric. Although some 55 countries have drawn up coastal management plans, only a handful have been properly implemented. Coasts must be managed in an integrated manner that takes into account the full range of human activities. Initiating this process is costly, time-consuming, and difficult. Yet we have more than three decades of accumulated experience to draw on.
- OSTI ID:
- 380939
- Journal Information:
- Issues in Science and Technology, Vol. 12, Issue 4; Other Information: PBD: Sum 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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