WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE
A NEW REPORT HAS FOUND that more than 85% of reefs in the Coral Triangle are directly threatened by local human activities.
Reefs at Risk Revisited in the Coral Triangle shows that the greatest local threats to reefs in the countries that make up the Coral Triangle — Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste—are overfishing, pollution and coastal development.
When these threats are combined with coral bleaching prompted by rising ocean temperatures, the percent of reefs rated as threatened increases to more than 90%.
“Across the Coral Triangle region, coastal communities depend on coral reefs for food, livelihoods, and protection from waves during storms, but the threats to reefs in this region are incredibly high,” said Lauretta Burke, a lead author of the report.
“Reefs are resilient—they can recover from coral bleaching and other impacts—particularly if other threats are low. The benefits reefs provide are at risk, which is why concerted action to mitigate threats to reefs across the Coral Triangle region is so important.”
The Coral Triangle features immense biodiversity–it contains nearly 30% of the world’s coral reefs and more than 3,000 species of fish—twice the number found anywhere else in the world. More than 130 million people living in the region rely on reef ecosystems for food, employment, and revenue from tourism.
You can download the report here
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