natural environment conservation

Spanning eastern Indonesia, parts of Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands (see the map), the Coral Triangle is the global center of marine biodiversity and one of the world’s top priorities for marine conservation. This extraordinary expanse of ocean covers an area of 2.3 million square miles (5.7 million km2), the equivalent to half of the entire United States. It is home to over 600 reef-building coral species, or 75% of all species known to science, and more than 3,000 species of reef fish. Over 150 million people live within the Coral Triangle, of which an estimated 2.25 million fishers are dependant on marine resources for their livelihoods. Applying the latest science, The Nature Conservancy is working with a range of partners to protect the coastal and marine ecosystems of this vast area by addressing key threats, such as over-fishing, destructive fishing, and mass coral bleaching.

Destructive fishing not only contributes to over-fishing, it also destroys the habitat on which exploited fish depend. Blast fishing, either with home-made or industrial explosives, is perhaps the best known example of destructive fishing. Other examples are bottom trawling, fishing with poisons, and fishing with certain kinds of fish traps. The loss of income due to blast fishing in Indonesia over the last 25 years is approximately US$3.8 billion. Global warming is already making a significant impact on marine biodiversity and the lives of those who depend on the reefs for income. A major threat to coral reefs comes from the periodic mass bleaching of corals caused by increased temperatures in the seas. In the 1998 El Nino weather event, 75% of reefs worldwide bleached and 16% died. Coral bleaching is predicted to become an annual event within 25-50 years