Ecological

Biodiversity

Reef systems are home to an estimated one million species.
There are more species per unit area of coral reef than in any other ecosystem.
The level of specialisation has been pushed to extremes, adapting to specific diets, cryptic habitats and highly evolved defence mechanisms.
It is estimated that less than 10% of the Earth's reef organisms are known to science.

Coastal protection

Reef systems provide a natural buffer against waves, storm surge and floods for more than 100,000km of coastline.
During storms they are a key factor in preventing the loss of life, property and erosion.
They contribute to the formation of sandy beaches and sheltered harbours.

Economic

Medicines

Recent research has linked compounds found in coral reef species with treatments for heart disease, cancer, HIV, arthritis, human bacterial infections, viruses, and other diseases.
Increasing research in this field suggests that coral reefs will increasingly become an important resource for medical treatments, nutritional supplements, pesticides, cosmetics, and other commercial products.
Cone snails are thought to contain more chemicals useful to medical research than any other group of organisms on the planet.

Tourism

The billions of dollars spent each year on diving tours, recreational fishing trips, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses based near reef ecosystems create livelihoods for an enormous number of people worldwide. A recent economic valuation conducted in Tobago by the World Resource Institute concluded that the value of coral reefs for 2007 was more than half of the island's annual GDP!

Fisheries

Coral reefs provide a wide range of harvestable species, including fish, molluscs and crustaceans.
For generations, many developing coastal communities depended on them as a primary food source.
With the increasing populations of many of the developing countries within which coral reefs commonly occur, coastal communities must manage their resources in a sustainable manner to ensure they can continue to be harvested in the future.
Reef ecosystems are vital in providing nutrients and breeding grounds for many oceanic commercial species, as well as the reef dependent species which we commonly think of.

Building

Coral reefs are a source of raw materials in many parts of the world.
Extraction practices can have immediate consequences on the reef and nearby beaches, such as high levels of siltation resulting in coral reef mortality and coastal erosion. This leads to destabilization of the coast and collapse of buildings.

Nutritional

Coral reefs provide the main source of animal protein for 1 billion people in Asia alone.

Aquarium trade

It is estimated that 2-2.5 million people around the world keep marine aquaria.
If managed properly, aquarium species could become a high value source of income in coastal zones with limited resources.
The problem with this form of exploitation is the destructive techniques used, and the lack of quantitative data to measure its environmental impact.
Huge numbers of vulnerable reef organisms are removed from the reefs every year to supply the burgeoning aquarium trade, upsetting the ecological balance of the systems.

The ecological and economic qualities of coral reefs are conventionally used to quantify their value but increasingly other factors, such as their intrinsic and cultural value, are being recognised. Some of the very uses that make coral reefs economically viable have lead to their exploitation and today around the world corals are severely threatened .