The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef: challenges in coral reef protection

28-01-2014 by Eline Bongertman

The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, with its 1,000 km, is the second largest barrier reef in the world (after Australia’s Barrier Reef) and the largest in the western hemisphere, following the coasts of four countries – Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. But it is also a region where tourism is the major source of income (an average of 100 million tourists per year, creating 43% of the GNP in the Caribbean region), which is why there is an enormous impact on the systems of reefs, sea grass, mangroves and wetlands. The... » meer lezen