Wednesday, January 27th 2010 at 00:00 AM
Conservationists Urge Gordon Brown To Create 'Britain's Great Barrier Reef'
A coalition of conservationists is calling on the British public to urge Gordon Brown to create "Britain's Great Barrier Reef" by designating its territory in the Indian Ocean as the biggest protected marine area on Earth. This week the 10,000th person joined a campaign to create the Earth's biggest marine protected area in the Chagos archipelago.
The Chagos archipelago, part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, is a group of 55 tropical islands over half a million square kilometres of Indian Ocean that have belonged to Britain since they were captured from France in 1814 during the Napoleonic Wars. The islands include Diego Garcia, the site of a controversial joint British-American military base.
The archipelago boasts the world's largest coral atoll and the world's cleanest, most pristine waters, that are home to at least 220 coral species and more than 1,000 species of fish. The underwater landscape of 6,000m deep trenches, oceanic ridges and sea mounts, is also a refuge and breeding ground for large and important populations of sharks, dolphins, marine turtles, rare crabs, birds and other vulnerable species. It is Britain's greatest area of marine biodiversity.
Rachel Jones, the deputy team leader of ZSL London zoo's aquarium, said: "If Gordon Brown declares the Chagos archipelago a marine protected area it will be one of the biggest conservation breakthroughs for 100 years.
"This underwater Garden of Eden could be a legacy that Gordon Brown will really be proud of."
"If done in the right way, the Chagos protected area could be as important as the reserves which protect the Galapagos islands and Great Barrier Reef. Indeed, it would protect one of the world's most resilient coral reefs and some of the finest coral habitats remaining in the Indian Ocean," said Tony Juniper, green party candidate and campaigner.
Pollutant levels in Chagos waters are exceptionally low because of minimal human influence. Since the 1960s the islands have been set aside for defence purposes, with no inhabitants except for the military personnel and civilian contractors at the US military base on Diego Garcia.
As a result, the ecosystems of the Chagos have so far proven resilient to climate change and have been lagely immune from threats to other reefs worldwide.
But the Chagos Conservation Trust, a member of the CEN, says legal and illegal fishing has impacted the area despite regulations, with sharks, sea cucumbers, turtles and fish known to have declined. "An increased level of environmental protection and enforcement is now urgently required," said William Marsden, the chairman of the trust. "A protected area in Chagos would contribute to a richer Indian Oceans and would benefit people living in and around it."
The consultation, which ends on 12th February, is examining three options for protection. One is to declare a full "no-take" marine reserve for the entire territory; a second is the creation of a marine reserve of the same size but one that would allow some deep-sea fishing in certain zones at certain times of the year, and a third, to establish no-take reserves to protect only the vulnerable reef systems.
Jessica Aldred
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/27/gordon-brown-britain-great-barrier-reef
