US pledges $3m to save Caribbean coral reefs

The biggest bid to save coral reefs was launched at the Earth Summit yesterday. The United States and Ted Turner's United Nations Foundation gave $3m (£2m) to conserve the Atlantic's largest barrier reef.

The Mesoamerican reef stretches nearly 450 miles from Mexico's Yucatan peninsula to the coast of Honduras. It boasts more than 70 species of stony coral and some 500 fish species. But it has come under threat from pollution,tourism and global warming. About a quarter of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed, while another quarter are threatened.

Klaus Töpfer, the executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said: "We must not love corals to death through destructive tourism. These wondrous and fragile habitats are under threat from dynamite and cyanide fishing."