State of the environment reports

This publication documents the devastating effects of hurricanes on coral reefs in the Caribbean in 2005, the hottest year on record. This report catalogues the impacts of the warming and storms during 2005 and 2006. The valuable information in this book underscores that urgent actions are needed to assist reefs in recovery by focusing on natural resistance and resilience as well as removing threats posed by human activities that slow or even prevent recovery from these damaging events.

Extensively illustrated with maps, color photographs, and graphics, this state-of-the-art reference offers a comprehensive and authoritative status report on the world's 100,000 parks, nature reserves, and other land and marine areas currently designated as protected areas. Now covering over 12 percent of the Earth's land surface, protected areas are the great strongholds of biodiversity and landscape conservation.

The CORDIO programme, which started in 1999 as a pragmatic response to the impacts of global warming on coral reefs, has over the years improved our knowledge and management of coral reefs. Data collection in the Curieuse Marine Park in the Seychelles was instrumental in guiding government policy over the management of marine protected areas, especially those that have resilient coral ecosystems.

This report was written to provide an overview, without the use of scientific jargon, of the status of coral reefs and causes of reef decline, with recommendations for action by national authorities. This second edition is a major expansion and improvement on the first edition written in 1998.

The tsunamis of Sunday 26 December 2004 struck without apparent warning on a clear day. Not only was there a devastating loss of life, but coastal resources and infrastructure in the Indian Ocean suffered massive destruction as well. This book focuses on the impacts on the natural coastal resources, especially the coral reefs and associated ecosystems, and the responses by the international community.