{"id":507164,"date":"2010-04-02T15:14:05","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T19:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3254"},"modified":"2010-04-02T15:14:05","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T19:14:05","slug":"uk-sets-up-chagos-islands-marine-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/507164","title":{"rendered":"UK sets up Chagos Islands marine reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"first\"><a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/science\/nature\/8599125.stm\" >BBC News:<\/a> The UK government has created the world&#8217;s largest  marine reserve around the Chagos Islands.<\/p>\n<p>The reserve would  cover a 545,000-sq-km area around the Indian Ocean archipelago, regarded  as one of the world&#8217;s richest marine ecosystems.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/science\/nature\/8599125.stm\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/newsimg.bbc.co.uk\/media\/images\/47578000\/jpg\/_47578183_clownfish_credit_chasanderson.jpg-1.jpg\" width=\"203\" align=\"left\" height=\"114\" \/><\/a>This will  include an area where commercial fishing will be banned.<\/p>\n<p>But  islanders, who were evicted to make way for the US air base on the  island of Diego Garcia, say a reserve would effectively bar them from  returning.<\/p>\n<p><!-- E SF -->UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said  establishing the reserve would &#8220;double the global coverage of the  world&#8217;s oceans under protection&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He commented: &#8220;Its creation is a major step forward for protecting  the oceans, not just around BIOT [British Indian Ocean Territory]  itself, but also throughout the world.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This measure is a further  demonstration of how the UK takes its international environmental  responsibilities seriously.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Conservationists say the combination  of tropical islands, unspoiled coral reefs and adjacent oceanic abyss  makes the area a biodiversity hotspot of global importance.<\/p>\n<p>The  archipelago, which has been compared to the Galapagos Islands and to  Australia&#8217;s Great Barrier Reef, hosts the world&#8217;s biggest living coral  structure &#8211; the Great Chagos Bank. This is home to more than 220 coral  species &#8211; almost half the recorded species of the entire Indian Ocean,  and more than 1,000 species of reef fish.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/science\/nature\/8599125.stm\" >Read more&gt;&gt; <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"akst_link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3254&amp;akst_action=share-this\"  title=\"E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc.\" id=\"akst_link_3254\" class=\"akst_share_link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Share This<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BBC News: The UK government has created the world&#8217;s largest marine reserve around the Chagos Islands. The reserve would cover a 545,000-sq-km area around the Indian Ocean archipelago, regarded as one of the world&#8217;s richest marine ecosystems. This will include an area where commercial fishing will be banned. But islanders, who were evicted to make [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-507164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}