D e v e l o pme n t : E q u a l i t i e s a n d s u s t a i n a b i l i t y • Carbon storage • Coastal protection afforded by marine and coastal habitats (mangroves, etc.) that protect human settlements but also parks and recreational areas • Coastal livelihoods and economies, both in terms of jobs and income, and of identity and cultural issues • Tourism and recreation, or the value people place on enjoying coastal environments • Sense of place, including both iconic species, such as whales, and ‘lasting special places’ reflected in the designation of protected areas • Clean waters, free of pollution and debris • Biodiversity, including both species under threat and habitats These indicators suggest the basis for further data collection by national governments to benchmark policy and to aid national decision-making. The index also demonstrates key aspects of cultural significance. Fishing is a way of life as well as a means of making a living, and the coast and marine species touch our sense of the aesthetic and hold intrinsic value. The most serious and long-term threats to the oceans stem, however, from climate change. They include sea-level rise, which threatens growing coastal settlements, and ocean warming, which leads to the migration of fish stocks toward the poles and general marine ecosystem instability. The impacts on fisheries are exacerbated by ocean acidification, which impairs the calcification processes vital to the growth of coral and invertebrate shellfish populations. This will make existing problems more acute in tropical regions and will for some countries, especially lowlying small island states, pose existential threats. The other pressing and more acute set of threats stems from recent marked reductions in the value the oceans of the world have always had as sources of food and sustainers of human livelihoods. The major culprit here is industrial-scale IUU fishing in the waters of Commonwealth developing countries by fleets supplying developed country markets. But reduced value also comes from more localised SSF or recreational overfishing, which may or may not involve foreign vessels or be otherwise illegal, but which is clearly degrading inshore and coastal fisheries’ ecosystems in many places. These nearshore and coastal marine resources are the ones on which small-scale fisheries and the livelihoods of their associated communities typically depend. And to these localised fisheries impacts the changes associated with coastal energy development can be added, the expansion of tourism, coastal urbanisation and marine pollution from sewage and fertilizer run-off – all factors that, together, Commonwealth Governance Handbook 2013/14 116 Clearing mangroves for tourism development, Caribbean Nicholas Watts
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