WWF: World's richest reef system could soon succumb to climate change

Scientists are predicting the demise of most of the world's coral reefs by as early as 2050. The Coral Triangle is the richest of them all and could be the first to go.

The publication last week of the Worldwide Fund for Nature's (WWF) Living Blue Planet report painted a bleak picture of the state of the world's oceans: marine populations, including reef ecosystems, have halved in size since 1970 and some species are teetering on the brink of extinction. Coral reef cover has declined by 50% in the last 30 years and reefs could disappear by as early as 2050, the report says, if current rates of ocean warming and acidification continue. WWF estimates that 850 million people depend directly on coral reefs for their food security - a mass die-off could trigger conflict and human migration on a massive scale.

100 million of these reef-reliant peoples live in the Coral Triangle - singled out in the report as "richer in marine natural capital" than anywhere else on earth. Currently, fisheries exports from the Coral Triangle - which encompasses the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste - amount to around $5bn (3.3bn), including 30% of the global tuna catch, and a lucrative trade in live reef fish for food markets, which is worth nearly $1bn (655m). But there are serious questions about the sustainability of these fisheries.