The Value of Coral Reefs

Coral reefs support an extraordinary biodiversity. They are home to a variety of tropical fishes, such as the colorful parrot fishes, angelfishes, damselfishes and butterfly fishes. Other fish groups found on coral reefs include groupers, snappers, grunts and wrasses. Over 4,000 species of fishes inhabit coral reefs.

Reefs also provide spawning, nursery, refuge and feeding areas for a large variety of other organisms, including sponges, sea anemones, worms, crustaceans (including shrimp, spiny lobsters and crabs), mollusks (including cephalopods), echinoderms (including starfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers), sea squirts, sea turtles and sea snakes.

Reef structures play also an important role as natural breakwaters, which minimize the wave impacts from storms such as cyclones, hurricanes or typhoons. Some reports state that the extent of the damage cause by the Asian Tsunami in 2004 was far less in areas in close proximity to healthy reefs areas than those close to degraded ones.

The stunning beauty of coral reefs makes them a powerful magnet for tourists, and well managed tourism provides a sustainable means of earning foreign currency and employment for people around the world – even in remote areas of developing countries.

Several attempts have been made to estimate the values of coral reefs in terms of dollars. Benefits from coral reefs can be categorized into 2 types: “direct use values” (fisheries and tourism industries, for instance), and “indirect use values” (benefits from coastline protection, for example). According to a United Nations estimate, the total economic value of coral reefs range from US$ 100,000 to 600,000 per square kilometer per year.⁴