Countries promise to raise $12bn for coral reef protection

An alliance of countries promised on Tuesday that its members would raise $12bn to protect coral reefs from threats such as pollution and overfishing, but experts warned the funding would be only a drop in the ocean if broader climate risks are not tackled.

The International Coral Reef Initiative said it will secure public and private investment to help conserve and restore coral ecosystems that sustain a quarter of marine species and more than 1-billion people.

“The functional existence of these critical ecosystems is at stake due to the climate crisis and a myriad of other anthropogenic stressors,” it said. “The window for protecting these ecosystems is closing rapidly.” Coral reefs are under mounting pressure with rising marine pollution, destructive coastal development and fishing fleets. But they are also suffering because seas are warming, which makes coral expel colourful algae living in them, a phenomenon known as “bleaching”.

Marian Wong, senior lecturer at the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences at Australia’s University of Wollongong, said that more funds for protection and restoration is “good news”, rising temperatures are the bigger risk.

“Threats are grave, especially as we head into another El Nino,” she said. “We expect coral bleaching on a mass scale … again, probably February to March, unless we are very lucky.” The initiative aims to “secure the future” of 125,000km² of shallow-water tropical coral reefs and double protected areas by the end of the decade. It vowed to “accelerate” restoration of damaged reefs using innovative new solutions.

David Booth, marine ecologist at the University of Technology Sydney, said restoration is no cure-all. It will be “unfathomably expensive” to do on a meaningful scale.

Australia, France, Japan, Jamaica, the Philippines, Sweden, Britain and the US launched the initiative in 1994. Members include 45 countries with three quarters of all coral reefs.

“ICRI countries should be focused squarely on reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” said Terry Hughes, coral expert at Australia’s James Cook University. “Australia and Saudi Arabia are strong supporters of coral restoration ‘solutions’ because it buys time for fossil fuel industries to continue to pollute the atmosphere for as long as it’s profitable.”