Coral reefs are the most valuable marine habitats for over 100 countries around the world. Coral reefs are the most beautiful of all aquatic ecosystems. It contains the largest variety of species of marine life in a very tiny area, and produce more living biomass than any other marine ecosystem. Coral reefs provide many free economic and environmental services, including fisheries, tourism, generation of sand for beaches, and protection of the shore from waves, which make them the most valuable of all marine ecosystems in most countries where they occur.
The fishing industry and the common income source for the fishermen in the coastal areas is heavily dependent on the coral reefs. The coral reefs provide shelter, nutrition and habitat to almost a quarter of the world's fish. Think how valuable is this contribution when it comes to the national, international and local fisheries market. The disastrous hurricanes and tsunamis that sweep off life and property, in the blink of an eye, are lessened in their impact by coral reefs. Yes, coral reefs are known to break the power of waves and reduce their intensity, thereby protecting coastal areas from destruction. Coral reefs can be called as nature's defense mechanism to prevent coastal soil erosion and flooding. Coral reefs form an important part of the tropical marine biology.
The coral reefs maintain a balance of life with the mangrove and sea grass ecosystems near the coastal shores. Many marine creatures spend their lives in moving from mangrove ecosystems to sea grass beds and then coral reefs, thereby transferring nutrients and connecting life. Mangrove trees are known to grow to a height of 15 meters and their roots are always in proximity to the shores. The root systems serve as a source of underground water ecosystem for marine animals. Sea grass beds are found in totally shallow bays. The coral reefs lying at the bottom protect the mangrove trees and sea grass beds from erosion by the waves.
Mangrove forests are extremely important coastal resources, which are vital to our socio‐economic development. A vast majority of human population lives in coastal area, and most communities depend on local resources for their livelihood. The mangroves are sources of highly valued commercial products and fishery resources and also as sites for developing a burgeoning eco‐tourism.
The mangroves supply forestry products (firewood, charcoal, timber, honey etc.) and fishery products (fish, prawn, crab, mollusk etc.). Mangrove forests are home to a large variety of fish, crab, shrimp, and mollusk species. These fisheries form an essential source of food for thousands of coastal communities around the world. The forests also serve as nurseries for many fish species, including coral reef fish. Due to high calorific values, mangrove twigs are used for making charcoal and firewood. The mangrove wood with high content of tannin is used as timber for its durability. The pneumatophores are used to make bottle stoppers and floats. Nypa leaves are used to thatch roofs, mats and baskets. Shells of mangrove molluscs are used to manufacture lime.
Mangroves are known to remove CO2 from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. This perhaps reduces the problems that go with the green house gases and global warming. They fix greater amounts of CO2 per unit area, than what the phytoplankton do in the tropical oceans.
The dense root systems of mangrove forests trap sediments flowing down rivers and off the land. This helps stabilizes the coastline and prevents erosion from waves and storms. In areas where mangroves have been cleared, coastal damage from hurricanes and typhoons is much more severe.
Given the diversity of life inhabiting mangrove systems, and their proximity in many cases to other tourist attractions such as coral reefs and sandy beaches, it is perhaps surprising that only a few countries have started to tap into the tourism potential of their mangrove forests.
