1998 Foreword Coral reefs are particularly important to millions of people around the world as sources of high quality protein, medicinal, and cultural products. They also provide raw materials for dwellings along the coast, and protect fragile shorelines from storm damage and erosion.
Many economies are also dependent on reefs and their products.
The coral reefs, and the white sand beaches they produce, are worth hundreds of million of dollars in tourism to some tropical countries, and are the mainstay of many small island developing states. Lobster, conch, snapper, and grouper are increasingly in demand by thriving tourist industries as well as the international seafood market. Coral reefs are also of great value to the world at large as they are the hotspots of marine biodiversity. These calls were made up of a series of individual reports of reefs being damaged by human activities, or often by a combination of human and natural stress, but there were no clear assessments documenting the status of reefs around the world. Thus came a response by governments, donor agencies, and the scientific community to set up global monitoring programs that could help decision makers and the public evaluate the health of the world's reefs.