UN ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME-SUPPORTED FILM ‘OCEAN WONDERLAND 3D’ OPENS, AIMS TO RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT THREATS TO WORLD’S CORAL REEFS

UN ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME-SUPPORTED FILM ‘OCEAN WONDERLAND 3D’ OPENS, AIMS

TO RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT THREATS TO WORLD’S CORAL REEFS

(Reissued as received.)

BOSTON, 11 February (UNEP) -- The Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Klaus Toepfer, is participating in the global launch here in Boston today of an outstanding new underwater 3D film about the world's coral reefs.

Mr. Toepfer, a United Nations Under-Secretary-General, is attending the world premiere of the visually stunning new movie, Ocean Wonderland 3D, in order to drive home the message that the world's valuable and beautiful coral reefs are under increasing threat from activities such as dynamite fishing, pollution and climate change.

"All over the world, coral reefs are under assault", said Mr. Toepfer.  "They are rapidly being degraded by human activities.  They are over-fished, bombed and poisoned.  They are smothered by sediment, and choked by algae growing on nutrient-rich sewage and fertilizer run-off.  They are damaged by irresponsible tourism and are being severely stressed by the warming of the world's oceans.  Each of these pressures is bad enough in itself, but together, the cocktail is proving lethal."

"Today there is a new urgency to protect and conserve these important, valuable and seductively beautiful habitats", Mr. Toepfer continued.  "I am therefore delighted that Ocean Wonderland 3D has been made.  Such an outstanding film can only serve to raise awareness further about the moral, economic and environmental imperatives for saving the world's coral reefs.  We must ensure that this unique ecosystem continues to feed, protect and dazzle us and our descendants, for generations to come."

Mr. Toepfer comes to Boston straight after the end of UNEP's Governing Council meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.  Environment ministers from across the world attended the week-long meeting, which ended Friday, 7 February, to discuss crucial issues such as mercury pollution, threats to global water resources, and the environmental condition of conflict areas, from the Middle East to Afghanistan. (See www.unep.org.)

Ocean Wonderland 3D was produced in collaboration with UNEP.  The film shows the immense diversity of the marine life on the reefs and the amazing beauty of the many varieties of coral living there.  It also illustrates the dangers threatening and destroying the world's coral reefs.  The message is clear:  if these threats are not eliminated today then our children may never see the amazing beauty of coral reefs, except perhaps in books or museums.

Even though they occupy less than one tenth of one per cent of the world's oceans, coral reefs are vital for fisheries, coastal protection, tourism and wildlife.

Often referred to as the "rainforests of the oceans”, coral reefs host an extraordinary variety of marine plants and animals (perhaps up to 2 million), including one quarter of all marine fish species.  It has been estimated that only about 10 per cent of these species have been described by scientists.

Coral reefs offer countless benefits to humans, including supplying compounds for medicines.  AZT, a treatment for people with HIV infections, is based on chemicals extracted from a Caribbean reef sponge, and more than half of all new cancer drug research focuses on marine organisms.

Coral reefs are also an important source of food for hundreds of millions of people.  They also provide income and employment through tourism, marine recreation, and export fisheries.  For many coastal villages, and some entire nations, coral reefs are the only source of income and employment.

The UNEP believes Ocean Wonderland 3D will make a major contribution to marine conservation efforts worldwide and will use the film as part of its wider public awareness efforts for coral preservation.

In response to a call for action from coral experts, UNEP, with the assistance of the UN Foundation, helped set up the International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN).  The ICRAN, another supporter of Ocean Wonderland 3D, aims to transform reefs that are in a marginal condition into ones that are beacons of best practice in terms of environmentally and people-friendly management-habitats that balance the need for conservation with the genuine needs of local people for incomes and food. (For more information, see www.icran.org.)

Ocean Wonderland 3D, the first Large Screen Format movie entirely shot using new digital technology, was produced by François Mantello of 3D Entertainment.  It was directed by Jean-Jacques Mantello and filmed by Gavin McKinney.

The film (see www.oceanwonderland.com) will be premiered today at the Simons IMAX Theatre of the New England Aquarium in Boston.

For more information, please contact:  Jim Sniffen, UNEP Information Officer in New York at telephone: +1-212-963-8094, mobile: +1-917-742-228, e-mail: sniffenj@un.org; or Robert Bisset, UNEP Spokesperson for Europe, at telephone: +33-1-4437-7613, mobile: +33-6-2272-5842, e-mail: robert.bisset@unep.fr.

In Nairobi, please contact:  Eric Falt, Spokesperson/Director of UNEP's Division of Communications and Public Information, at telephone: +254-2-623292, mobile: +254-733-682656, e-mail: eric.falt@unep.org; or Nick Nuttall, UNEP Head of Media, at telephone: +254-2-623084, mobile: +254-733-632755, e-mail: nick.nuttall@unep.org.

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