In the front line A mangrove boardwalk for tourists on Wasini Island in southern Kenya, managed by a local women's group, generates several thousand dollars a year which are used for maintaining the boardwalk and for community development activities (LUCN, 20041. recreation, with a total value of US205 million a year Iseenprachawong. 20031. This provides a major incentive for careful management of the reefs post-tsunami, to ensure that they recover rapidly and continue to provide tourism benefit. Mangroves are not traditionally thought of as tourist attractions or suitable sites for recreation, but this is changing fast with the realization that this ecosystem provides a fascinating educational experience and also harbours a range of unusual species that can be easily observed once boardwalks have been installed. Visits to mangroves and birdwatching tours are now generating significant revenue for local communities. valued species] in Belize, Honduras and Mexico is directly dependent on the health of the adjacent barrier reef, the longest in the hemisphere. Sustainable annual catches of fish from reefs vary from 02 to 30 tonneskm, with an average of 5 tonneskm' (Jennings and Polunin, 19951. Depending on the value of the fish, reef fisheries are thus potentially worth US15 000-150 000km' a year, based on catch values of US1 -1 per kg Talbot and Wilkinson, 2001 1. Reef fisheries in South-east Asia generate some US2. A billion a year (Burke et al, 2002), and in the Caribbean US310 million a year (Burke and Maidens, 200A). There is now a global market for reef species. Commercial reef fisheries are a major source of employment and foreign exchange, supplying export markets and retailers around the world, as well as the restaurant and hotel industries. The live reef fish trade supplies restaurants throughout South-east Asia with products from the Pacific and Indian Oceans (Hughes et al, 20031. Tuna fisheries, such as those in the Maldives and Lakshadweep, are often supported by reef-based bait fisheries, and tuna themselves depend in part on reefs for their food (Whittingham et at, 20031. Reef-based recreational fisheries generate over US100 million annually (Cesar etal, 2003). A large proportion of fish and invertebrates in the aquarium trade comes from coral reefs, shipped to the 152 million people in Europe and North America who have aquaria. Sri Lanka, for example, earns about US56 million a year exporting reef fish to about 52 countries, an activity that supports directly and indirectly around 50 000 people. Large quantities of corals, shells, starfish, pufferfish and other species are used in the curio tade. Reef-based PROVISIONING SERVICES Fisheries and other marine products Coral reefs and mangroves support numerous different types of fishery: artisanal, commercial and recreational; food, curios and souvenirs, bait, and items for decoration; and fish, lobsters, crabs, molluscs, sea cucumbers and many other species. However, much of the harvesting of these species, as well as of species taken for non-food purposes, is unsustainable, and current economic benefits may thus be short term. Of the estimated 30 million small-scale fishers in the developing world, most are dependent to some extent on coral reefs for food and livelihood. In the Philippines, more than 1 million small-scale fishers depend directly on coral reefs for their livelihood. The productivity of the fisheries sector (shrimp, lobster, conch and other high-Some estimates suggest that reefs contribute up to 25 per cent of the annual total fish catch in developing countries, providing food for 1 billion people Caesar el al, 20031. 19