Paradigm Explorer 2018/2
Increasing Reef Resilience Through New Collaborative Models HRH The Prince of Wales
© Ian Skelly 2012
A speech on 14 February 2018 by HRH The Prince of Wales at the International Sustainability Unit’s meeting: “International Year of the Reef 2018 – An Opportunity for Increasing Coral Reef Resilience through New Collaborative Models”
www.scimednet.org
The Ocean has an astonishing ability to heal itself if given the chance. So Ladies and Gentlemen, we simply have to give it that chance, perhaps its last, for we must not only conserve what remains of these unique and vitally important ecosystems, but we must also allow Nature to restore what has already been lost. Ladies and Gentlemen, can I just say it is enormously heartening to see so many people here today, especially when I know how very busy you all are and the vast distances many of you have travelled to be at this meeting, and I apologise if during what I have to say, it may be teaching grandmothers to suck eggs – you know so much more about all these things than I do! But nevertheless, this event is vitally important, for while the world – apart from one or two outposts here and there – has begun to focus, at last, on the profound perils of climate change, far too little attention has been given to the increasingly devastating impact of climate change on the Ocean and its biodiversity. Even when set against the dire backdrop of the destruction of the tropical rainforests and the burgeoning illegal wildlife trade, the plight of the world’s coral reefs stand out in stark and desperate relief.
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