During a recent conference in Taipei held by the World Commission on Protected Areas in East Asia, one of the proposals discussed was whether to set up a protected area on Pratas Island, the main island of the Pratas island group (
Pratas Island, located in the north of the South China Sea, is an atoll system formed by coral reefs. The countries near the Pratas atoll, including Taiwan, China, Vietnam and the Philippines, would all cooperate on the management of the Pratas marine sanctuary.
How Taiwan can cooperate with neighboring countries to establish a protected area in the Pratas islands was one of the more important issues tackled at the conference. To further discuss this issue, one must understand the relationship between the Pratas atoll and the neighboring coral reefs. Pratas atoll belongs to the coral reef ecosystem of the South China Sea and Southeast Asia. This ecosystem is a diverse habitat for marine creatures, with around 600 types of reef-building corals and more than 2,000 kinds of coral reefs. The coral reefs in this region cover roughly 100km2, accounting for 34 percent of the world's coral reefs. However, the ecosystem of Pratas atoll is on the verge of extinction.
The World Resources Institute issued a report, "Reefs at risk in Southeast Asia," on Feb. 14, pointing out that 90 percent of the coral reefs around Cambodia, Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, China and the Nansha Islands, as well as 85 percent of the coral reefs around Malaysia and Indonesia, were under threat. They make up 77 percent of all coral reefs in Southeast Asia and 80 percent of the world's endangered coral reefs.
The report said the coral reef ecosystem faces three types of threats -- overfishing, destructive fishing techniques, and sediment and pollution brought about by coastal development and inappropriate land use. Furthermore, the report warned that if fishing is not "reduced to more sustainable levels," coral reefs and their food supply in Southeast Asia will be in grave danger. As a result, Indonesia and the Philippines may lose nearly US$2.5 billion of income within 20 years. If coral reefs in Southeast Asia can be developed in a sustainable way, annual fishery production capacity for the region will reach US$2.4 billion. The benefits are even higher if tourism and coastal protection are counted.
The report also makes four solemn appeals. The first is to extend the protected area to include all of Southeast Asia's coral reefs. So far, only 8 percent of coral reefs in the region are protected. The second is to reduce the impact of overfishing through effective management and by making available other fishing techniques. The third is to control international trading of coral. And the fourth is to coordinate government, private groups and tourism industries to improve the management of marine sanctuaries.
The move to establish the Pratas marine sanctuary must not be separated from the international movement to protect marine areas. Through academic and private participation in international conferences and cooperative programs, Taiwan's government may seek Southeast Asian countries' assistance in managing the Pratas marine sanctuary. Furthermore, it should make Pratas Island a monitoring base for Southeast Asia's coral reefs through cooperation with the International Coral Reef Action Network. This will help preserve the beauty of the Pratas coral.
Allen Chen is an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Zoology, Academia Sinica.
Translated by Jackie Lin
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