mobilize and distribute approximately US$9.3 million for environmental recovery and disaster risk reduction between 2004 and 2007. Funding came from other international agencies and from countries including Finland, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Evidence suggested that the presence of mangroves in coastal areas had provided some protection, when compared to areas that had been cleared for aquaculture or development. As a result, mangrove restoration become a focus of a number of projects, with varied success. Such approaches to ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction appear to be most successful when local communities are closely involved as stakeholders throughout the process, and when careful attention is paid to the physical conditions of chosen sites to ensure that mangroves can thrive there. Economic impact The level of damage to the economy resulting from the tsunami depends on the scale examined. While the overall impact on the national economies was minor, local economies were devastated. The two main occupations affected by the tsunami were fishing and tourism. Some economists believe that damage to the affected national economies will be minor because losses in the tourism and fishing industries are a relatively small percentage of the GDP. However, others caution that damage to infrastructure is an overriding factor. In some areas drinking water supplies and farm fields may have been contaminated for years by saltwater from the ocean. The impact on coastal fishing communities and the people living there, some of the poorest in the region, has been devastating with high losses of income earners as well as boats and fishing gear. In Sri Lanka, artisanal fishery, in which the use of fish baskets, fishing traps, and spears are commonly used, is an important source of fish for local markets; industrial fishery is the major economic activity, providing direct employment to about 250,000 people. In recent years the fishery industry has emerged as a dynamic export-oriented sector, generating substantial foreign exchange earnings. Preliminary estimates indicated that 66% of the fishing fleet and industrial infrastructure in coastal regions were destroyed by the wave surges. While the tsunami destroyed many of the boats vital to Sri Lanka's fishing industry, it also created a demand for fibreglass-reinforced plastic catamarans in the boatyards of Tamil Nadu. Given that over 51,000 vessels were lost to the tsunami, the industry boomed. However, the huge demand has led to lower quality in the process, and some important materials were sacrificed to