Melbourne, Feb 7: Only 15 per cent of coastal areas around the world remain intact due to pressures caused by human activity, according to a study which highlights the need for urgent coastal rehabilitation and conservation on a global scale.
An International team led by researchers at the University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia mapped the impact of human-caused pressures on coastal regions to identify those that are already highly degraded, and those that remain intact.
The findings, published in the journal Conservation Biology, provide valuable insights into the widespread impacts of human activity on Earth’s precious coastal ecosystems.
“Coastal regions contain high levels of biodiversity and are relied upon by millions of people for ecosystem services such as food and storm protection,” said Brooke Williams, from the University of Queensland.
“Our results show that we need to act quickly and decisively if we hope to conserve those coastal regions that remain intact, and restore those that are heavily degraded, especially if we are going to mitigate the effects of climate change,” Williams said.
The researchers noted that the rate at which these regions are degrading poses massive threats to not only coastal species and habitats, but also to the health, safety and economic security of countless people who live or rely on coastal regions around the world.
The team found that, of the 15.5 per cent of coastal areas that remain intact as of 2013, Canada was responsible for the largest expanse of coastal region that stood intact.
“Other large expanses are located in Russia, Greenland, Chile, Australia, and the United States,” Williams said.
“Coastal regions containing seagrasses, savannah, and coral reefs had the highest levels of human pressure compared to other coastal ecosystems,” she added.
The collaborative research approach, which involved looking at two datasets — one, which focused on human impacts on land, and the other which observed human impacts from a marine perspective — offered a clear vision about what the next steps should be, the researchers said.
“While we already knew how important it is to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services in these coastal regions, being able to clearly see how rapidly and how far this degradation has spread, is truly eye-opening,” said UQ’s Amelia Wenger, a collaborator of the research.
“Understanding why coastal ecosystems are under pressure can help us design and implement more targeted management strategies, and hopefully slow this degradation down and even turn it around,” Wenger said.
The researchers urge governments and custodians of these environments to proactively conserve the valuable remaining intact coastal regions that they are responsible for, while restoring those that are degraded.
“We think our dataset will be a vital tool in achieving that ambition, which is why we are making it publicly available and free to use,” Wenger added. (PTI)
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