PHUKET: -- About 40 per cent of the coral reefs in Thailand's coastal waters have sustained significant damage and have deteriorated, according to a senior natural resources official, raising concern that more must be done to protect the kingdom's once abundant varieties of marine life.

Department of Marine and Coastal Resources director-general Nisakorn Kositrat said that the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) resolution designated 2008 as the International Year of the Coral Reef (IYOR) to raise awareness of the value and importance of coral reefs in the marine ecology system and threats to their sustainability so that people will take action to protect them.

Thailand encompasses about 36,000 acres of coral reefs and about 40 per cent of the reefs have been damaged both by natural action and human activity, she said.

Global warming has caused coral bleaching, Ms. Nisakorn indicated.

A research plan has been laid out to cushion the effects on coral reefs, marine resources, and the communities along Thailand's coastal areas.

--TNA 2008-03-15