The United Nations has designated 2018 as the third International Year of the Reef keeping in mind the major loss of coral reef to bleaching and other environmental challenges.
According to a press release of UNWTO, more than half of the planet’s coral has died due to rising water temperatures and ocean acidification over the last three decades. To keep up the year-long awareness campaign, an official event took place in Nukubati Resort, a Fijian-owned property which fronts the Great Sea Reef which boosts to have the third-longest continuous barrier reef in the world.
Fiji’s Prime Minister, Hon. Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama said that this is a global event of relevance to every single person on earth. Bainimarama emphasized the importance of protecting the world’s reefs and also announced that a significant portion of the Reef had been nominated as a Ramsar site under the Convention on Wetlands, to help protect it from external threats.
Marco Lambertini, Director-General of WWF International said that ‘a healthy planet depends on healthy oceans which cannot exist without preserving coral reefs- a key pillar of WWF’s conservation work worldwide.’
According to featured excerpts from the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), the Pacific reefs are in much better shape than the other reefs in the world.
