Photo courtesy of: © Andrew Jalbert
Excerpts;
The first ever Coral Triangle Day is celebrated on June 9th 2012, to highlight the importance of marine conservation and to raise awareness of marine biodiversity.
The Coral Triangle is a six million square kilometer ocean expanse that geographically spreads across 6 countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Timor Leste (the “CT6” countries).
The Coral Triangle contains the highest number of reef building corals on the planet, home to whales, dolphins, rays, marine turtles, and the world’s largest populations of commercially imported tunas.
The Coral Triangle is part of an area that has emerged as one of the planet’s economic hubs, as it supports livelihoods and provides income and food security, particularly for coastal communities. Resources from the area directly sustain more than 120 million people living in the area.
The Coral Triangle’s economic value is nothing short of phenomenal:tuna spawning and nursery grounds support a multi-billion dollar tuna industry and supply millions of consumers worldwide.
Marine resources contribute to a growing nature-based tourism industry, valued at over US$12 billion annually.
However, Fast population and economic growth have fuelled unsustainable coastal development and boosted demand for expensive marine resources such as tuna, shark fin, turtle products and live reef fish.
Now, the challenge is to ensure that the growing needs of the region do not make the wonders of the Coral Triangle something of the past…
WWF works to address these issues:
” This Coral Triangle Day (held on World Oceans Day), we’re inviting you to be part of a massive celebration of the Coral Triangle, the world’s epicentre of marine biodiversity, at beaches in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and Fiji.
We will have beach clean-ups, sustainable seafood dinners and exhibitions, bazaars, and beach parties—all carrying the message of ocean conservation under the overall banner of “shared waters, shared solutions”.
The Coral Triangle Day will be an annual, open-sourced event that brings together individuals, organizations, and establishments on one special day of the year to shed light on ocean conservation and the numerous ways to protect and conserve the Coral Triangle.
or those living outside the Coral Triangle, online video streaming of all the activities happening in the region on that day will be available on” thecoraltriangle.com website.”
Coral Triangle DAY: Article and Photo Gallery, WWF
Coral Triangle: Local People Taking The Lead: Slideshow, Nature Conservancy
