** New from World Resources Institute: Reefs at Risk **

[Claudia Tejada]

NEW FROM WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE
==================================
REEFS AT RISK: A Map-based Indicator of
Potential Threats to the World's Coral Reefs

(June 23, 1998). During this International Year of the Ocean, the World
Resources Institute (WRI) presents a startling new report that highlights
the biological and economic value of coral reefs.  This first detailed
map-based global assessment, produced through a partnership with the
International Center for Living Aquatic Resource Management (ICLARM),
the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC), and the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),  is the first global assessment
of coral reefs to map areas at risk from human activity, ranging from
coastal development and over fishing to inland and marine pollution.

The Reefs at Risk study finds that nearly 60 percent of the earth's coral
reefs are threatened by human activity, leaving much of the world's
marine biodiversity at risk. In addition, the report concludes that while
reefs provide billions of people and hundreds of countries with food,
tourism revenue, coastal protection 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.

Visit the Reefs at Risk website at:

     http://www.wri.org/wri/indicatrs/reefrisk.htm

* to download maps, text and coral reef images
* listen to the RealAudio broadcast of the June 23 news conference
(9:30 a.m. E.S.T.)
* connect to coral reef resources on the internet.

To order Reefs at Risk, call 1-800-822-0504 or visit

     http://www.wri.org/wri/

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The mission of World Resources Institute (WRI) is to move human
society to live in ways that protect the Earth's environment and its
capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future
generations.