Nicaragua canal builder Wang Jing admits ties to president's son

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-08-31

Wang Jing. (Internet photo)

Mysterious Chinese billionaire Wang Jing has admitted to being "good friends" with the son of President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua but insists that the relationship had nothing to do with his company scoring a lucrative deal to build a US$40 billion canal across the Central American country.

The 42-year-old Wang was thrust into the spotlight last June after his company, Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment, won a 50-year concession (with an optional 50-year extension) to design, build and manage the proposed canal to provide an alternative trade route to the Panama Canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Late last year he also announced plans to invest US10 billion in a deepwater port in Crimea, then part of Ukraine, though that project has been suspended indefinitely due to the peninsula's annexation by Russia and the ongoing instability in the region.

In an exclusive interview posted on Huanqiu.com, the Chinese-language website of the nationalistic Global Times tabloid, Wang openly confirmed rumors that he is friends with Laureano Ortega, the son of Nicaragua's president, but staunchly denied that it had any connection to his company winning the canal concession.

"Any personal feelings would be unable to affect a project as important as this canal," he said, adding that the project was formed within an "open, fair, equitable and transparent legal framework."

Wang said in the interview that he decided to take on the canal project for three main reasons. First, he believes the world has a pressing need for the canal due to the explosive growth in international trade, resulting in month-long queues for some vessels to pass the Panama Canal. Second, he believes Chinese enterprises are best equipped to handle the project because of their experience in infrastructure construction and their investment and financing ability, as well as their economic, technological, engineering and other advantages. Third, Wang said, "Somebody has to do it."

The billionaire said that he is investing a lot of his own money into the project, noting that he is shelling out at least US$7-$8 million and perhaps as much as US$20 million a month out of his own pocket.

Wang also provided an update on the project, noting that it was progressing well with more than a dozen companies on board, including state-owned enterprises, foreign companies, financial institutions, equipment manufacturers and design engineers. He emphasized, however, that his company holds the largest share in the project and will continue to be its controlling shareholder and leader.

He estimates there are currently around 500 staff on site in Nicaragua, all technical personnel working on pre-construction modeling and evaluations such as societal and environmental impact assessments. In China there are about 600 people involved in the project, including about 30 people in the Hong Kong office where the canal company is headquartered, he added.

As for the future earning potential of the canal, Wang said his analysts believe it can collect several billions of US dollars in fees a year, which is important from a commercial perspective as there are shareholders and investors involved. From a personal perspective, however, Wang said he values the giant social benefits of the canal even more than the economic ones.

Despite rumors surrounding his mysterious background, Wang continued to insist that he is an "ordinary" businessman.

"I have nothing to do with the government, the military, the Communist Party or politics," he said. "I'm not a party member, I'm simply one of the masses."

Guatemala Mayans: from victims of discrimination to perpetrators?

Yahoo – AFP, Edgar Calderon, 31 Aug 2014

Urias Goldman, a member of the Orthodox Jewish community, speaks during a
 meeting with leaders of San Juan La Laguna at the headquarters of the Human
Rights Office in Guatemala City on August 27, 2014 (AFP Photo/Johan Ordonez)

Urias Goldman, a member of the Orthodox Jewish community, speaks during a meeting with leaders of San Juan La Laguna at the headquarters of the Human Rights Office in Guatemala City on August 27, 2014

Guatemala City (AFP) - Fearful of losing their culture and land, ethnic Maya people in Guatemala -- who have faced centuries of discrimination themselves -- drove out a group of 230 ultra-Orthodox Jews, experts say.

The Jewish group's departure from San Juan La Laguna, on the banks of Lake Atitlan some 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the capital Guatemala City, followed failed efforts reach a deal Wednesday.

"We are very pleased with the decision made by that group to avoid conflicts with (local) people," Miguel Vasquez, spokesman for the San Juan Council of Elders, told AFP by phone.

Most members of the small Jewish community are from the United States, Israel, Britain and Russia, and around 40 are Guatemalan. Approximately half are children.

Since October, the local indigenous population has accused the Orthodox Jews of discriminating against them and of violating Mayan customs. Maya elders also said the Jewish community sought to impose their religion and was undermining the Catholic faith predominant in the village.

Pedro Vasquez, leader of San Juan La Laguna community, speaks during a

 meeting with members of the Orthodox Jewish community at the headquarters of the

 Humang Rights Office in Guatemala City on August 27, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Johan Ordonez)

Rabbi Uriel Goldman, a representative of the Jewish group, told Prensa Libre newspaper his community had taken up residence temporarily in a Guatemala City hotel until it can find a place to relocate to in an outlying part of the capital area.

History repeats itself

Guatemala, a mountainous and scenic nation in Central America, cannot quite agree on how indigenous it is.

The government insists 42 percent of citizens belong to ethnic Maya tribes, traditional farmers who mainly speak Maya languages; indigenous leaders insist they represent 60 percent of the 15 million Guatemalans.

If the indigenous are right, they are starkly underrepresented in what is supposed to be a federal democracy.

During three centuries of Spanish colonialism, Mayans were marginalized. After independence in the early 1800s, they spent almost another two centuries living in relative isolation, with a Spanish-speaking ruling class in Guatemala City who long referred to Mayans as dolts for not speaking Spanish.

Yet many rural Guatemalans -- most indigenous live in rural areas on their traditional land -- have never been to school in any language.

Instead of embracing equal rights, including to education, in a democratic era, as recently as the 1990s, the traditional elite opted not to embrace bilingualism; not to push to guarantee rural educational equality; and not to have a strategy for integrating indigenous people into national life.

In Guatemala's 36-year civil war that ended in 1996, some 200,000 people were killed -- 93 percent of them at the hands of the government's armed forces, according to a United Nations report.

The report also found that 83 percent of victims were ethnic Mayans.

"Having gone through history losing land to expropriation, which has contributed to their poverty, ... and the state having been dysfunctional where they are concerned, really exacerbated" indigenous people's reaction in this culture clash, Guatemalan Mental Health League chief Marco Garabito, a sociologist, told AFP.

A member of a folk group holds a Mayan mask at the Tikal archaeological site

 in Peten departament, north of Guatemala city on December 20, 2012 (AFP

Photo/Hector Retamal)

The likelihood that more members of the Jewish community would keep coming triggered the Mayans' intense fears they could lose more of their lands.

But on Friday, the Human Rights Prosecutor's office said it regretted the "forced departure" of the Jewish group.

"There can be no justification for ... anyone claiming to have the right to threaten or expel foreigners from Guatemalan territory, or make them relocate," it said in a statement.

"The Jews are being attacked because of their ethnicity," said anthropologist Estuardo Zapeta. "That's discrimination, plain and simple."

Unfamiliar orthodoxy

The Lev Tahor community was founded in 1980 by Israeli Shlomo Helbrans, seeking to practice an austere interpretation of Judaism.

The community faced legal problems in the United States and Canada before running up against indigenous opposition in Guatemala.

Canadian media reports also said red flags had been raised by the group's treatment of children. But the group maintains its way of operating is nothing new.

Maya leaders were confounded by the group's customs and practices, offended that they did not respond when they were greeted by locals.

"They don't believe in Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary. They do not work. They dress all in black. And they scare off tourists. They don't sleep at night, and they are out walking around on the streets when we were asleep," said the indigenous council's Vasquez.

The Jews said they were targeted by an "aggressive" subgroup of the Maya leadership.

"We are peaceful people. And to avoid anything more regrettable, we decided to leave that town," said Misael Santos, another representative of the Jewish group.

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“.   New Tolerance

Look for a softening of finger pointing and an awakening of new tolerance. There will remain many systems for different cultures, as traditions and history are important to sustaining the integrity of culture. So there are many in the Middle East who would follow the prophet and they will continue, but with an increase of awareness. It will be the increase of awareness of what the prophet really wanted all along - unity and tolerance. The angel in the cave instructed him to "unify the tribes and give them the God of Israel." You're going to start seeing a softening of intolerance and the beginning of a new way of being.

Eventually, this will create an acknowledgement that says, "You may not believe the way we believe, but we honor you and your God. We honor our prophet and we will love you according to his teachings. We don't have to agree in order to love." How would you like that? The earth is not going to turn into one belief system. It never will, for Humans don't do that. There must be variety, and there must be the beauty of cultural differences. But the systems will slowly update themselves with increased awareness of the truth of a new kind of balance. So that's the first thing. Watch for these changes, dear ones. ...."

Ecuador gives details of new digital currency

BBC News, 29 August 2014

The central bank says the electronic currency will make life easier for consumers

The Ecuadorean government has released more details of its plans to create what it calls the world's first digital currency issued by a central bank.

Central bank officials say the electronic money, as yet unnamed, will start circulating in December.

The new money will be used alongside the existing currency in Ecuador, the US dollar.

President Rafael Correa has said the digital currency will help those who cannot afford traditional banking.

Central bank officials say the electronic money will be used to pay government bureaucrats in a "hygienic manner".

The electronic currency is also designed to help poorer Ecuadoreans make and receive payments using mobile phone technology.

Such mobile payment schemes have become very popular in African countries where they are privately run.

Ecuador introduced the US dollar as its currency after a crippling bank crisis in 2000.

President Rafael Correa has denied any plans to replace the US dollar

Since then, the government has tripled social spending and the state is currently billions in debt, mostly to China which buys most of Ecuador's oil.

Analysts say the introduction of the electronic currency could be used to increase the money supply and devalue US dollar holdings - a first step towards abandoning the US dollar.

President Correa has denied this is the case.

Exchange rate

"It will be interesting to see who controls the exchange rate," said Jeremy Booney - a product manager for Coindesk - a website for digital currency news.

"So when an Ecuadorean exchanges the digital currency for US dollars, is it going to be the government who sets the rate, or is it down to supply and demand?

"And the government could decide to put the digital currency up if it wants."

There are also challenges in persuading Ecuadoreans to use a digital currency, Mr Booney said.

"Bitcoin (a global digital currency) has faced huge challenges to get people around the world to use it, and that is a worldwide movement with thousands of developers working on it."

The new currency was approved by Ecuador's National Assembly last month. At the same time, stateless digital currencies like Bitcoin were banned.

Leave that iguana in the jungle, expert tells Costa Rica

Yahoo – AFP, Oscar Nunez, 30 Aug 2014

A nurse at the Simon Bolivar Zoo's veterinary surgery gives a medicine to a

squirrel in San Jose on August 28, 2014, Costa Rica (AFP Photo/Ezequiel Becerra)

San Jose (Costa Rica) (AFP) - Thousands of parrots, monkeys, iguanas, toucans, turtles and other rainforest animals are kept as exotic pets in Costa Rica, a practice putting some species at risk, according to experts.

The Central American country, famous for its rich biodiversity, won plaudits from conservationists two years ago for banning sport hunting in a pioneering move to protect wild animals.

A macaw eats at the Simon Bolivar Zoo's

 veterinary surgery, in San Jose on August 28,

 2014, Costa Rica (AFP Photo/Ezequiel Becerra)

But scientists and activists -- gathered this week for the country's first-ever conference on the issue of captive wildlife -- say tropical animals face another major threat in Costa Ricans' long-time love of exotic pets.

"There are no precise figures, but we know it's a problem of great magnitude, because a study by the environment ministry found that 25 percent of households have a parrot or a parakeet as a pet," said Andrea Aguilar of the Instituto Asis, a key figure behind the conference.

That would add up to nearly 400,000 exotic birds in cages, she said.

Aguilar's institute runs a shelter for wild animals in La Fortuna de San Carlos, a lush region in northern Costa Rica that draws large numbers of foreign tourists with its famous wildlife and tropical vegetation.

The shelter takes in wild animals kept as pets that fall sick or are wounded by people, cars or electric shocks.

It gives them veterinary care and, when possible, prepares them for an eventual return to the wild.

Cindy Rivera, a nurse at the Simon Bolivar 

Zoo's veterinary surgery, weighs a turtle

 in San Jose on August 28, 2014 Costa

Rica (AFP Photo/Ezequiel Becerra)

"Costa Rican law forbids keeping wild species as pets, but the law isn't enough because there's a very deep-rooted custom. People don't realize that wild animals are not and cannot be pets," Aguilar told AFP in an interview ahead of the First Congress on Wildlife Rescue, Recovery and Freedom in San Jose.

She said people have a range of reasons for keeping pets such as white-faced capuchin monkeys, green iguanas or songbirds. They are drawn to the animals' beauty, they want to entertain their children or they feel it brings them social status.

But the underlying problem is that people are largely ignorant of the animals' diets, growth, life span, habitat, diseases and behavior.

"A family falls in love with a baby white-faced capuchin because it's funny and affectionate, but when it reaches two years old its behavior will change. It will become aggressive, bite and pull people's hair. That's when it becomes a problem at home," she said.

Such animals often end up being mistreated or killed, or, with luck, in a shelter, she said.

By that point returning them to their native environment is difficult. They lack survival skills and are unlikely to be accepted by other members of their species.

Traffic in exotic animals

The international traffic in exotic animals exacerbates the problem.

A Spider Monkey sits in an enclosure at the

 Simon Bolivar Zoo in San Jose, Costa Rica 

on July 28, 2013 (AFP Photo/Hector Retamal)

The illegal $20-billion-a-year trade has taken a major toll on Costa Rica's biodiversity, as animals are captured and sold abroad, Aguilar said.

One of the goals of the three-day conference is to prod the Costa Rican government to expand environmental education programs for locals, foreign visitors and ecotourism operators.

"It's important to make people understand that wild animals have to live in the forest, because they have different needs from domesticated animals," said Aguilar.

Protecting the environment is also key for the Costa Rican economy, which depends heavily on tourism and attracted 2.4 million visitors last year -- many of them drawn by the country's tropical wildlife and forests.

Several miners rescued in Nicaragua

Rescuers in Nicaragua have reportedly brought to safety several of the some two dozen freelance miners trapped in a gold and silver mine. The whereabouts of up to five miners remains unknown.

Deutsche Welle, 30 Aug 2014

First Lady Rosario Murilo, the government's official spokeswoman, said on Friday that 20 of the at least two dozen miners trapped in the El Comal mine in the northeastern town of Bonanza had been rescued.

"We give thanks to God our Lord and the Virgin Mary for having saved from death 20 artisanal miners," she said.

She said five workers were still missing.

Earlier, Interior Vice Minister Carlos Najjar had said 11 of the miners had been rescued.

Najjar told state television that the miners were a little dehydrated, but in good health.

The miners, whose number has been variably put at between 24 and 28 in different reports, had been working in the shaft on Thursday morning when a landslide triggered by heavy rain caused the mouth of the mine to cave in.

Two workers buried near the surface had managed to dig their way out, according to the local disaster prevention committee.

Dangerous work

The informal miners, known as "guiriseros" descend into disused shafts that have been abandoned by conventional mining companies to look for any gold left over, sometimes digging deeper to find new veins.

A spokesman for the company Hemco that runs the mine told the AP news agency that miners had been warned about the danger of working in the El Comal area, where two miners died in a landslide last month.

The miners had been allowed to work in the company's concession on condition that they sold any gold they found to Hemco, Gregorio Downs said.

Some of the informal miners work independently, while others belong to officially authorized cooperatives.

Officials estimate that there are 6,000 "guiriseros" living in Bonanza, where informal mining is the main source of employment amid a modern-day gold rush.

tj/se(AP, AFP)

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Brazil cracks 'biggest' Amazon deforestation gang

Yahoo – AFP, 28 Aug 2014

In this file aerial photo, deforestation area is clearly visible in Para state,
northern Brazil, on August 9, 2013 (AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi Chiba)

Sao Paulo (AFP) - Police in Brazil have broken up an Amazon deforestation gang considered the worst currently active, officials said.

The gang would invade public land in northern Para state, burn down forest, divided the land into parcels and sell them, federal police said in a statement, released Wednesday.

The group is responsible for environmental crimes to the tune of $230 million, said the Brazilian Environmental Institute.

There was no word on how many people were arrested.

"The suspects are considered the greatest destroyers of the Brazilian Amazon currently active," the institute said.

They should be charged with invading public land, environmental crimes, forgery, criminal association and money laundering, it added.

Arrest orders are being served in the states of Sao Paulo, Parana and Mato Grosso, police said.

If convicted, the suspects face more than 50 years in prison.

Chile navy officer makes history by announcing he is gay

Yahoo – AFP, Patricia Luna, 28 Aug 2014

Chilean Navy officer Mauricio Ruiz, pictured during a press conference in

Santiago, on August 27, 2014 (AFP Photo/Claudio Reyes)

Santiago (AFP) - A navy officer became the first member of the Chilean military to reveal he is gay -- a groundbreaking admission in this conservative Catholic country.

"There is nothing better than being yourself," a shy-looking Mauricio Ruiz, 24, told a press conference on Wednesday.

He said he had already told his superiors because he was tired of leading a double life, then decided to go completely public by speaking to the media.

Mauricio Ruiz (L) and his boyfriend Jorge

 Velasquez pose for photos after a press

 conference in Santiago, on August 27, 

2014 (AFP Photo/Claudio Reyes)

Chile is a highly conservative country, where even divorce was not allowed until 2004, and discrimination against suspected gays in the military and society in general have been common. A law governing same sex unions is being debated.

"For me it is important to take this step, because to be repressed is to not accept what you are, and that made me unhappy," Ruiz said.

Gays can have a tough time in Chile.

The violent death of a young gay man named Daniel Zamudio at the hands of alleged neo-Nazis prompted a 2012 law that punished people who discriminated against others because of their race, sexual orientation or social status.

Gay rights groups welcomed Ruiz's announcement.

"He took a pioneering decision, worthy of brave people who take the first step," said Oscar Rementeria, spokesman for the Homosexual Integration and Liberation Movement.

Ruiz said his partner initially did not want him to come out because he feared for Ruiz's safety. The partner stood beside him at the press conference.

In the end, the reaction was not as adverse as he expected, Ruiz said.

"I don't know what I was afraid of," he said.

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"The Akashic Circle" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, The Humanization of God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.)  - (Text version)

“… Gender Switching

Old souls, let me tell you something. If you are old enough, and many of you are, you have been everything. Do you hear me? All of you. You have been both genders. All of you have been what I will call between genders, and that means that all of you have had gender switches. Do you know what happens when it's time for you to switch a gender? We have discussed it before. You'll have dozens of lifetimes as the same gender. You're used to it. It's comfortable. You cannot conceive of being anything else, yet now it's time to change. It takes approximately three lifetimes for you to get used to it, and in those three lifetimes, you will have what I call "gender confusion."

It isn't confusion at all. It's absolutely normal, yet society often will see it as abnormal. I'm sitting here telling you you've all been through it. All of you. That's what old souls do. It's part of the system. …”

Famed Galapagos tortoise 'Pepe the Missionary' dies

Yahoo – AFP, 23 Aug 2014

Galapagos turtle "Pepe the missionary" on February 7, 2014 at San Cristobal
Island in the Galapagos, Ecuador (AFP Photo)

Quito (AFP) - "Pepe the Missionary," a giant tortoise who rose to fame as one of the most photographed animals on Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, has died at age 60, officials said Friday.

Pepe, who lived in a corral at the Galapagos National Park's Interpretation Center, died of natural causes, said the park's ecosystems director, Victor Carrion.

"Several of his organs had been slowly failing," Carrion told AFP, saying the tortoise was also overweight.

Park director Arturo Izurieta paid tribute to the tortoise on Twitter.

"After 60 years of life, Pepe the Missionary will remain in our memories forever," Izurieta said.

He brightened the post with a bit of good news for conservationists: "The disappearance of Pepe the tortoise does not put his species in danger."

Pepe was a member of the Chelonoidis becki species native to Wolf Volcano on the island of Isabela.

About 2,000 tortoises from the same species still live in their native habitat.

Pepe was adopted from the wild by a family from San Cristobal island in the 1940s.

Local fishermen named him "Pepe," which was then expanded to "Pepe the Missionary" when he was given to Franciscan missionaries on the island in 1967.

He became the missionaries' mascot and a beloved community pet, often photographed and fed by visitors to the mission.

The missionaries handed him over to the national park in 2012 -- the same year the reserve lost another famous tortoise, Lonesome George, the last known member of the subspecies Geochelone nigra abingdoni.

The Galapagos Islands are famous for their unique flora and fauna studied by Charles Darwin as he developed his theory of evolution.

Giant crack in Mexico seen by drone raises earthquake fears

News.com.au, August 22, 2014

Random crack ... Earthquake speculations as this amazing drone footage reveals

a giant crack in Mexico. Picture: Hermosillo Desde El Cielo Source: YouTube

SCIENTISTS and locals have been left stunned after a giant crack, almost one kilometre long, appeared in remote farmland in Mexico.

The eight-metre deep trench opened up last week and severed Highway 26 between Hermosillo and the coast in the north of the country.

Filmed by a drone controlled by Hermosillo Desde El Cielo, the spectacular footage takes viewers along the length of the trench, which is up to five metres wide.

Missive crack ... The one kilometre crack appeared in remote farmland in
Mexico last week. Picture: Hermosillo Desde El Cielo Source: YouTube

It has baffled locals, as well as officials, with many speculating that an earthquake at the San Andreas Fault may have been the cause.

However, geologists at the University of Sonora, have blamed collapse of land on an underground stream.

Farm workers and vehicles have been forced to go around the area due to the unstable ground. Another crack was reported to have opened up in same area.

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“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Text version)

New Mini Ice Age

“… So now we've refreshed that which we have said before, a review. You are in the middle of a cycle that will bring cooling to the planet. It is not a heat cycle, but rather a cooling cycle. But it always starts with a short heat cycle. It has been here before. It will come again. It is a long cycle - one generation plus five years. That's how long it's going to last. It starts with the melting of the ice caps, which is far more than any of you have seen in your lifetime or those of your ancestors. It is a cycle whose repetition is thousands of years long, but one that has not yet been recorded to the books of Human record. But it's definitely been recorded in the cores of the ice and in the rings of the trees.

Thousands of years old, it is, and it happens in a cyclical way. It's about water. It starts with that which is the melting of the ice caps to a particular degree, which has a profound effect on the planet in all ways. You can't have that happen without seeing life change as well as Gaia change and you've seeing it already. What happens when you take that which is heavy on the poles [ice] and you melt it? It then becomes cold water added to that which is a very, very gentle and finite balance of temperature in the seas of the planet (1). The first thing that happens is a redistribution of the weight of water on the thin crust of the earth from ice at the poles to new water in the seas. The results become earthquakes and volcanoes, and you're seeing them, aren't you? You are having earthquakes in places that are not supposed to have earthquakes. Volcanoes are coming to life in a way that you've not seen before on a regular basis. There will be more. Expect them.

Is it too much to ask of a Human Being that if you live by a volcano that you know might erupt, maybe you ought to move? Yet there will be those who say, "It hasn't erupted in my lifetime or my parents' lifetime or my grandparents' lifetime; therefore, it won't." You may have a surprise, for all things are changing. That is what is happening to Gaia. ….“

Jamaican coral reefs get a helping hand

Jamaica may be known for its sun and sea, but under the waves the country is batting to rebuild its coral reefs. Manmade reefs have begun to see success after the island's corals were decimated by disease and pollution.

Deutsche Welle, 21 Aug 2014

The warm waters of the Caribbean Sea were once rich in biodiversity - they teemed with marine life, and many holidaymakers who go there still expect to see the soft corals, mollusks and fish they've seen on other reef dives.

But beneath the waves off the coast of Jamaica, there's not much see. Only eight per cent of Jamaica's coral reef is still alive, and many of the fish that once thrived there have disappeared.

For an island trying to reduce its dependence on food imports, that's not an ideal situation. Fish is an important part of the local diet, and its disappearance from the ecosystem has changed nature's balance - which has not only implications for fishing, but also tourism.

Storm, overfishing, disease

Like rainforests, coral can transform a nutrient-poor environment into a
biodiverse wonderland

Some three decades ago, two types of coral were prominent across the Caribbean: But in 1980, Hurricane Allen - the worst storm to hit Jamaica in the past 100 years - smashed the reefs to smithereens. Everyone expected the corals to recover, but the storm ended up decimating the ecosystem.

Coral are the building blocks for marine life; it’s a habitat for herbivorous species like adult Parrot Fish who use it as somewhere to sleep, to provide protection and as a nursery.

But overfishing of algae-eating fish, and a mystery disease which wiped out the sea urchins that also grazed on the algae.

Coral and algae are in constant competition, and without these two grazers, there was nothing left to slow algae growth, which smothered most of the coral.

Regenerating reefs

But there is some hope. Marine biologist Andrew Ross runs Seascape, a firm helping to re-grow the island's reefs bit by bit. He's created an artificial reef made of metal, which has proven to be successful. Over the past nine months, it's slowly become covered with coral.

He and his team do the work that algae-grazing species used to take care of. "Until the coral gets established, you have to pick it off by hand - there's not enough fish on the structure to keep it going," Ross told DW.

Seascape locates areas where the reef is recovering naturally. "We take very small samples from each of those corals, and we put them into a nursery and we grow them," Ross said.

It takes from six to 12 months for the coral fragments to grow 10 times in size. At this size they're then used to repopulate existing nurseries and start new nurseries. Any leftover coral is replanted onto the reef.

As the artificial reef grows, so does the fish population that feeds on the worms, snails and algae on the coral. But until then, if Ross and his team didn't remove the algae by hand, the coral would die.

Snorkeling, free-diving and scuba diving
 are all thriving tourism activities where
 oceans offer coral

Benefit for businesses

Since Jamaica is one of the most indebted nations on the planet, funding for Seascape comes from the private sector.

The local hotels understand how coral gardens help attract holidaymakers - by donating money to the coral projects, they are securing a future for their own businesses.

Caribsave, an environmental organization, is trying to work with the country's 32,000 fishermen and women to help the islands' reefs. Caribsave coordinator Michelle McNaught said the private sector has a vital role to play in educating the wider community.

Government funding, she said, "has to be prioritized with other things like education or justice - which is understandable. So private partnership is the way to go now," McNaught told DW.

Signs of improvement

Globally, 75 percent of coral reefs are under threat from overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution and acidification of the seas due to climate change. Peter Gayle from the University of the West Indies explained how a changing ocean PH level dissolves calcium carbonate, which makes up coral structures.

"It becomes less dense and is more susceptible to things like wave energies, and has a smaller chance to protect coastal areas from sea level change," Gayle described. This can even become a vicious cycle, as more reefs die and become ever more susceptible to destruction.

Dane Bhudoo, a lecturer at the UWI Marine Lab in Jamaica, said that despite the threats to coral reefs, things are thankfully improving.

"It's not all doom and gloom, there are areas in Jamaica where I still enjoy diving, there's a lot of coral and the fish are coming back - but it takes time," Bhudoo said.

Often referred to as the rainforest of the seas, coral reefs are among the most diverse ecosystems in the world. One that Jamaica depends on so much for food, income and leisure - and with help, one that will recover and benefit the country in the process.

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Caribbean coral reefs could disappear 'in 20 years'

“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Text version)

"....Let us just talk about the ocean for a moment. We won't even get to what's happening in the air and what mammals might experience. Let's just speak of the ocean. Have you heard about the salmon? What has your science warned you against? You're overfishing! The sea is dying. The coral is dying. The reefs are going away. You're not seeing the food chain that used to be there. You've overfished everything. Fishing quotas have been set up to help this. Oh, all those little people in the red room - they don't know about the purple. Red people only know about the red paradigm.

Did you hear about the salmon recently? There's too many of them! In the very place where quotas are in place so you won't overfish, they're jumping in the boats! Against all odds and any projections from environmentalists or biologists, they're overrunning the oceans in Alaska - way too many fish.

What does that tell you? Is it possible that Gaia takes care of itself? That's what it tells you! Perhaps this alignment is going to keep humanity fed. Did anybody think of this? What if Gaia is in alliance with you? What if the increase in consciousness that raised your DNA vibration has alerted Gaia to change the weather cycle and get ready to feed humanity? Are you looking at the ocean where the oil spill occurred? It's recovering in a way that was not predicted. What's happening?

The life cycle itself is being altered by the temperature change of the ocean and much of what you have believed is the paradigm of life in the sea is slowly changing. A new system of life is appearing, as it has before, and is upon you in your lifetime. It will compliment what you know and expose you to a new concept: Gaia regularly refreshes the life cycle on Earth. ...."