Reefs at Risk: A Map-Based Indicator of Threats to the World's Coral Reefs

This study is the first global assessment of coral reefs to map areas at risk from overfishing, coastal development, and other human activity. The study finds that nearly 60 percent of the earth's coral reefs are threatened by human activity -- ranging from coastal development and overfishing to inland and marine pollution -- leaving much of the world's marine biodiversity at risk. The report concludes that, while reefs provide billions of people and hundreds of countries with food, tourism revenue, coastal production, and new medications for increasingly drug-resistant diseases -- worth about $375 billion each year -- they are among the least monitored and protected natural habitats in the world. Produced by the World Resources Institute in collaboration with International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM), the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).