David Billett
Deep Seas Environmental Solutions Ltd, Ashurst, Hampshire, UK
In September 2018, fourteen serving heads of government joined together to form the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (HLP) (https://www.oceanpanel.org/). The HLP has commissioned a number of ‘Blue Papers’ summarising solutions for the sustainable development of ocean economies. One of these papers, published in 2019, “The Expected Impacts of Climate Change on the Ocean Economy” addresses how aspects of ‘blue’ economies in marine fisheries, aquaculture and reef tourism may change in relation to climate change in years to come.
Marine and coastal tourism was the second-largest ocean-related economic sector in 2010, second only to offshore oil and gas. Ocean tourism includes beach tourism, recreational fishing, swimming, snorkelling, sports diving, whale watching, and cruises. The collective direct value of ocean tourism is estimated to be $390 billion (2010) of which some $36 billion (annually) is related to coral reef tourism. Ocean tourism is projected to be the most important marine industry by 2030. In terms of employment, marine and coastal tourism is second only to the collective marine fisheries, aquaculture and food processing sector. Coral reef tourism is a major source of income in many coastal developing nations and island states. In the Maldives, Palau, Bonaire, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the British Virgin Islands, coral reefs support over one third of all tourism value and 10% or more of the entire GDP.
Understanding the full value of coral reefs to tourism provides an important incentive for sustainable reef management. Two different benefits from reef tourism can be identified: i) local “reef-adjacent” value (such as the provision of sandy beaches, sheltered water, food, and attractive views) and ii) “on-reef” value (in-water activities such as diving and snorkelling directly related to the coral reefs). Maps of value assigned to specific coral reef locations around the world show considerable spatial variability across distances of just a few kilometres. Some 30% of the world's reefs are of value in the tourism sector, providing 9% of all coastal tourism value in the world's coral reef countries.
Periods of extremely high ocean temperatures, stimulating coral bleaching events, are expected to increase in frequency, intensity, duration and spatial extent. This will reduce coral-associated fish diversity and numbers with a negative impact on visitors’ perceptions and therefore cause economic losses. Ocean warming may also affect other major draws for tourism such as whales, sharks and turtles.
Climate change will produce significant economic losses from tourism for many developing nations. It is estimated that a decline in coral cover by 1% through climate impacts decreases direct coral on-reef tourism value by 3.8%. The projected economic losses, however, can also provide an indication of the gains which might be made by restoring healthy coral reef ecosystems. So, restoring coral reef ecosystems could, in some cases, increase direct on-reef economic benefits by comparable amounts. In addition, there will be indirect benefits from coral reef restoration for fisheries, off-reef tourism and storm/erosion protection.
Coastal tourism in the vicinity of coral reefs is not always benign: negative impacts can be created by diving and snorkelling and poorly planned coastal development, such as dredging, building on intertidal spaces and increasing pollution. Tourism, however, may be a less significant threat than, say, fishing, land-based run-off or coral bleaching, and may even help to reduce some threats, notably over-fishing, by offering financial or social incentives for sustainable management. Many visitors to coral reefs already have heightened environmental awareness and reef visitation can both help to fund and to encourage coral reef conservation and restoration e.g. building artificial reefs for sports diving and coastal erosion management. The perception of reef proximity, even for non-reef users, may be an important draw.
The benefits of tourism to local economies, and the use of financial contributions from tourists for conservation and restoration, are not restricted to coral reefs. Tourism may provide a high-value, low-impact use of mangrove forests as mangrove tourism attracts tens to hundreds of millions of visitors annually and is a multi-billion dollar industry.
References
Dimopoulos, D, Queiros, D and van Zyle, C. (2019) Sinking deeper: The most significant risks impacting the dive tourism industry in the East African Marine Ecoregion. Ocean and Coastal Management181, 104897. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceanaman.2019.104897
Gaines, S.R., Cabral, C., Free, C.M., Golbuu, Y. et al. (2019) The Expected Impacts of Climate Change on the Ocean Economy. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available online at https://oceanpanel.org/sites/default/files/2019-12/expected-impacts-climate-change-on-the-ocean-economy.pdf
Spalding, M., Burke, L., Wood, S.A., Ashpole, J., Hutchison, J. and zu Ermgassen, P. (2017) Mapping the global value and distribution of coral reef tourism.” Marine Policy82(August): 104–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2017.05.014
Spalding, M. and Parrett, C.L. (2019) Global patterns in mangrove recreation and tourism. Marine Policy110, 103540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j,marpol.2019.103540
Tynyakov, J., Rousseau, M., Chen, M., Figus, O., Belhassan, Y. and Shashar, N. (2017) Artificial reefs as a means of spreading diving pressure in a coral reef environment. Ocean and Coastal Management149, 159-164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceanaman.2017.10.008
