Environmental Management: Principles and practice

Coral reefs
Throughout the world coral reefs have suffered as a consequence of collection for
building and cement manufacture, the souvenir trade, from damage by anchors, and
the use of dynamite for fishing. Pollution, and perhaps disease related to it, are taking
a toll (Wells, 1992; Gray, 1993). The loss of sediment-filtering mangroves, plus
more turbid river flow caused by land development may be to blame for some reef
damage. There has been suspicion that anti-foul paint may be causing coral damage.
A number of reefs have been damaged by the spread of the crown-of-thorns starfish.
There seems to be a correlation between agrochemical use on Northern Australian

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sugar plantations and damage to the Great Barrier Reef. Fears are voiced that
background pollution of the world’s oceans, UV damage from stratospheric ozone
thinning, and possibly the effects of global warming, are damaging coral (Pernetta,
1993; Wilkinson and Buddemeier, 1994).
FIGURE 10.3 Vegetation damage leading to soil degradation. Deforested landscape in the
High Atlas Mountains, Morocco. Note the pollarded trees (a) (goat grazing and fuelwood
collection); gullying and sparsity of groundcover vegetation (b)

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Damaged reefs means loss of biodiversity, nursery and feeding areas for fish
and other commercially important species, and reduced storm protection for low-
lying islands and coastlands. One proposal is to establish artificial reefs, perhaps
with scrap cars or old tyres.
Forests
Forests are being degraded and lost world-wide. In the humid tropics there has been
tremendous loss of lowland rainforest. Forests in the seasonally dry tropics have also
suffered, as has tree cover in drylands and in temperate and cold environments. There
has been some recovery of forest area in North America and the UK since 1900,
although species diversity has been reduced; in Scandinavia, western and central
Europe and some other areas acid deposition and other pollution has started seriously
to damage conifer and, more recently, broad-leaved forests. Within the last few years
large-scale logging has become a serious threat to the boreal forests of the CIS.
The cause of forest damage and loss varies from area to area, although there
may be shared factors (Barrow, 1995:138). The causes are often difficult to identify
precisely and may be multiple: sometimes logging is to blame, sometimes land
clearance by small farmers or governments, pollution may play a role, or ranchers
may be responsible. Clearing is usually facilitated by road building or the opening of
trails for power cables. The former may in part be for strategic reasons or to facilitate
mineral prospecting and development. Ironically, there have often been areas of
biodiversity-rich natural forest cleared for monoculture plantation cropping, usually
of eucalyptus or fast-growing pine species.
There have been efforts to improve environmental management of forest
ecosystems, often linked with local people’s participation, agroforestry or ‘tolerant
forest management’ (the extraction of products, leaving as much of the natural forest
as possible intact) (Anderson, 1990; Barrow, 1995:172). Sustainable logging has
been more difficult and is less common than some foresters care to admit, and few
manufacturers claim ‘product of sustainable forestry’ on their labels. It is more likely
to be ‘product of a managed forest’ —what ‘managed’ means is often not clarified.