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Coastal Ecosystems
Intro | Profile | Case Studies | Ecosystem Assessment
You may feel this sense that, why should you care, you know? But no man is an island, no ecosystem is an island. Everything's interconnected, and there is a meaning for all of this. Everything depends on everything. So you might feel the effects much later when it's too late. That's why you should care to begin with.
Beatrice Ferreira, marine biologist
The livelihoods of 20,000 families depend on the fish and tourism sustained by
the Tamandare reef off the coast of Brazil, but the beauty and bounty of
its waters are at risk. Earth on Edge introduces Beatrice
Ferriera and Mauro Maida, marine biologists who persuaded the Brazilian
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The Río Formoso River, Tamandare, Brazil.
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government to close off a little more than 4 square kilometers of this endangered
reef in hopes that the coral and marine life would recover from overuse
and overfishing. And it worked. But while the government invested $4 million
in this experimental project, developers are investing $800 million to turn
the region into a tourist mecca, beginning with the building of a dozen
luxury hotels right on the water's edge. The project threatens the mangroves,
which exist in a mutually dependent relationship with the coastline's ecosystems,
including the reefs that support the fish we eat. All the ecosystems encompassed
by coastal zones worldwide are mutually dependent; what affects one affects
the others-and the more than 2 billion people who live in coastal regions.
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Agricultural | Forests | Coastal |
Grasslands | Freshwater | Urban
The Value of Ecosystems
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