The International Coral Reefs Initiative (ICRI) was borne of a political response to the scientifically well established fact that coral reefs are in serious decline globally, especially those near shallow shelves and dense populations, and that the major threats to coral reefs will lead, if not checked and controlled to the degradation of most of the world’s reef resources during this century. This is a problem clearly identified in Chapter 17 of Agenda 21 and in other international conventions and agreements e.g. Convention for Biological Diversity, Conference on Small Island Developing States.

Within the West Asia region, a regional strategy for the protection of coastal reefs has been proposed and protocols on the protection of biodiversity and the establishment of Protected Areas in the ROPME and PERSGA Sea Areas are being developed. This effort is partially supported by the European Union through the GCC Secretariat. It is hoped that regional efforts to protect coral reefs in the regional seas of the area benefit from the global effort spearheaded and supported by UNEP.

Challenges facing the Marine and Coastal environments include oil pollution, sewage and other land-based effluents, physical alternation including land-fills, dredging, and modification of river course. Waters contamination by land-based sources, has led to eutrophication in some areas which is believed to be a main cause for the red tides and fish kills that have been occurring more frequently in many coastal areas. Coastal development and human activities also pose serious threats to oceanic waters reflected by sea water temperature rise, sea level rise, and associated deterioration of coral reefs. Furthermore, the world’s marine fish stocks are being exhausted at or beyond their level of maximum productivity. In West Asia, 1995 fish landings were almost half those of 1990.