Raja Ampat, the last stronghold of healthy coral reefs:
In this video, you can watch some of the efforts taking place in the Four Kings to maintain coral reefs healthy.
Coral reefs are often described as the rainforests of the seas, and for good reason. While they account for less than one percent of the world’s ocean, they support a whopping 25 percent of all marine species. However, rising ocean temperatures and acidification, exacerbated by adjacent impacts like destructive fishing, resource extraction, and marine pollution could cause all UNESCO World Heritage coral reefs to become functionally extinct by 2100, according to UNESCO – unless we rapidly embrace blue economies, change our behavior and relationship with the ocean and drastically reduce carbon emissions over the coming decades.
To learn more about the causes of coral reef degradation, check out my book “Biodiversity in Paradise. A Natural History of Raja Ampat“.