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CORAL REEFS AS WEAPON AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING
RP’s dying coral reefs to be rehabilitated
November 6, 2003
More than just home to 25% of all marine life and breeding ground
for marine species, the country’s 27,000 square kilometers of coral
reefs are now being eyed as a potent weapon against global warming
because of recent scientific findings confirming its tremendous
ability to eat-up greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2).
This developed as former Senator and Environment Secretary Heherson T.
Alvarez forged an agreement with former Japanese parliament member Kanji
Antonio Inoki, founder of the Inoki Foundation International, during
Inoki’s visit to the Philippines over the weekend to set-up the Inoki
Foundation Coral Savers-Philippines to help rehabilitate the country’s
coral reefs.
“Coral reefs have been dubbed ‘Rainforests of the Sea’ after recent scientific
studies show that oceans act as ‘carbon sinks,’ removing 65% to 70% of CO2 in
the atmosphere, many times more efficient in eating up greenhouse gases than
our existing forests,” stressed Alvarez, the first non-Western recipient of
the Outstanding Public Policy Award from the Washington-based Climate Institute.
Like forests which recycle CO2, oceans ‘lock’ CO2 from the atmosphere into ocean
floor sediments composed of wastes and dead organisms, and calcifying organisms
composed of coral reefs and limestone beds built up by corals, algae and other
plants.
“A systematically-rehabilitated forest and coral reefs will serve as ‘carbon sink’
that will recycle the massive concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere,” Alvarez added.
The Inoki Foundation employs a technology that quickly propagates coral species as
part of the foundation’s global program to rehabilitate emaciated coral reefs. It
has successful coral-planting programs in the islands of Palau.
A study commissioned by the foundation showed that while future global climate change
cannot be avoided, humans can directly influence global weather through the reduction
of atmospheric CO2 and the improvement of the ocean’s health – both achievable through
the expansion of coral reefs.
Alvarez, founding chair of the EarthSavers Movement and chair of the advisory board of
the Manila Baywatch, is eyeing the Manila Yacht Club cove as a nursery to cultivate the
coral species which will then be used to rehabilitate the coral reefs in the country.
Inoki, a famous Japanese pro-wrestler and politician-turned civic leader, said they will
be funding the coral reef rehabilitation project and are looking at a 20-hectare pilot
area in a coastal region in Bicol.
Alvarez said the use of coral reefs as “carbon sink” is in consonance with the Kyoto
Protocol, an international treaty recently ratified by the Philippine Senate, calling
for a global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, particularly CO2.
The renewed effort to fight global warming is also part of the observance of November
as Clean Air Month, as proclaimed by President Fidel Ramos when he signed Presidential
Proclamation No. 1109 in 1997, declaring the month of November as the Clean Air month.
According to a November 2000 study by scientists in the 9th International Coral Reef
Symposium in Bali, Indonesia, some 25,839 square meters or 95.7% of the country’s coral
reefs are either dead or dying, with only 1,161 square kilometers or 4.3 percent in good
condition.
Dynamite and cyanide fishing are being blamed for the continued destruction of coral
reefs where about 55% of the fish consumed today are coming from.
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