Color Market Reports
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A sea change for coral?
Conservation groups push to eliminate coral use in jewelry
By Teresa Novellino
September 23, 2009
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| Monique Pean's "Coral Reinterpreted" necklace features pale-pink recycled bakelite and 14-karat recycled gold, with removable and movable bezeled orange and yellow calcite pendants and a conflict-free diamond clasp. |
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New York--At Tiffany and Co., the windows are an underwater wonderland of jewels, a cool diversion for passersby on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue wilting in the 90-degree heat on a recent afternoon.
What's unusual about the "Under the Sea" display at Tiffany's flagship is not the real estate devoted to what is for sale, but the space used to explain what isn't: coral jewelry.
When Fernanda Kellogg, president of the Tiffany and Co. Foundation, heard about the visual merchandising team's sea-themed display concept--with a message--she was thrilled.
"They wanted to support the foundation and to spotlight the no-coral policy," Kellogg says. "It's a worldwide window theme, and in the windows is information on what Tiffany is doing, and what its coral policy has been since 2002."
If Tiffany's stance was quiet in the past, the volume is turned up now thanks to similar sea-themed displays in 182 Tiffany stores in 21 countries worldwide this summer.
It is part of a larger effort to conserve coral and to educate consumers on the fact that corals are not plants but live animals which scientists say are growing increasingly endangered not only by pollution and global warming but because they are being yanked from the sea by the ton for use in everything from decorative objects to home aquariums to, of course, fine jewelry.
The Tiffany and Co. Foundation helps fund Too Precious to Wear, a program run by SeaWeb whose goal is to raise awareness and garner support for U.S. and international legislation to help protect the precious deep-sea pink and red coral used in jewelry.
Tiffany is not alone: Independent retailer Leber Jeweler in Chicago and Oria Jewellers in the United Kingdom have also pledged not to sell real coral jewelry, and designers Melissa Joy Manning, Monique Pean, Kimberly McDonald, Sarah Graham, Hannah Garrison of AZU Studios and Kimberlin Brown have vowed to use coral as inspiration, not raw material.
"These corals, red and pink, we believe really are too precious to wear," says Lori Arguelles, vice president of media and policy strategy for SeaWeb. The group estimates that 30 to 50 metric tons of red and pink coral are harvested annually.
Although SeaWeb knows which retailers are selling coral jewelry, it has no plans to "out" the retailers as the No Dirty Gold campaign did when it ran a full-page ad in The New York Times back in 2006 listing industry "leaders" and "laggards" in seeking out responsibly produced gold.
At least initially, Arguelles says, the campaign will try to educate jewelers about conservation and gently persuade them to use coral alternatives.
An island souvenir
U.S. consumers seem particularly interested in buying coral jewelry as a keepsake from island hot spots in Hawaii and the Caribbean, but Italy is the luxury coral capital of the world, with an estimated 300 processors, artisans and harvesters in the town of Torre del Greco alone.
Although fake coral abounds, the real stuff is pricey--and increasingly rare. Coral jewelry-makers are turning to Asia and the Pacific now that Mediterranean coral has dwindled.
Raw red coral sells from $100 to $900 per kilogram at auction, while a red-coral necklace might fetch up to $20,000 at retail. Red-coral jewelry sales yielded $174 million in profits in 1999 alone, according to SeaWeb.
At Tiffany, requests for coral jewelry occur, but now they're an opportunity to offer information.
"When there's a customer request, it's explained that it is not sustainable," Kellogg says. "I think Tiffany's customers expect Tiffany to do what is responsible and appropriate."
At Tiffany's in Coral Gables, Fla., colored-gemstone sea-themed pieces by Tiffany designer Jean Schlumberger hang from faux pieces of coral, and Tiffany's anti-coral message is clearly stated in signage inside the store.
"It's been a traffic stopper," says Henry Gonzalez, Tiffany's group director for the Miami market. "We take the opportunity to explain how Tiffany has taken the lead in being socially and environmentally responsible."
Scientists estimate that 20 percent of the world's coral reefs have already been destroyed, and another 24 percent might be lost within our lifetimes if human impacts are not reduced.
"Coral reefs are really the rainforests of the sea," says Andrew Baker, assistant professor of marine biology and fisheries at University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. "Somewhere between one-quarter and one-third of marine species depend on coral reefs for some part of their life cycles."
Currently, more than 2,000 species of coral, including all stony shallow-water corals and precious black and blue coral, are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), but deep-sea red and pink coral are not. Also, since deep-sea coral does not have symbiotic relationships with algae, as shallow coral does, it grows very slowly. Some of the coral that has been harvested by divers is more than 2,000 years old, Baker says.
Too Precious to Wear hopes to see a U.S.-supported proposal for a CITES "Appendix II" listing for red and pink coral passed at the next CITES Conference of Parties in March 2010 in Qatar, says Julia Roberson of SeaWeb's London office. This will provide a "moderate" level of protection to the species on the list.
Some 40 environmental groups, including SeaWeb, are also pressing Congress to reauthorize the U.S. Coral Reef Conservation Act, which is still pending a full House and Senate vote. This would support research and management of coral reefs, weighing in commercial trade, reef destruction and climate change.
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