Indonesia, U.S. pact seeks to restore, preserve coral reefs

Reuters

The U.S. will forgive $35 million of Indonesian debt over the next nine years in return for the Southeast Asian country restoring and preserving coral reefs in an area believed to be the world’s most biodiverse patch of ocean.

Coral reefs are increasingly threatened due largely to climate change, which raises sea temperatures and causes heat stress that triggers coral bleaching.

Bleaching occurs when coral expels the colorful algae living in its tissues. Without the algae, the coral becomes pale and vulnerable to starvation, disease or death. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said more than 54% of the world’s ocean reefs are experiencing bleaching-level heat stress.

The agreement is the fourth “debt-for-nature” swap the two countries have struck since 2009 and is expected to fund at least 15 years of conservation work in two key areas of what is known as the Coral Triangle.

The agreement targets the Bird’s Head Seascape and Lesser Sunda-Banda Seascape, which both span hundreds of thousands of hectares, a habitat for over three quarters of all coral species and more than 3,000 types of fish, turtles, sharks, whales and dolphins.

Indonesia has roughly 5.1 million hectares of coral reefs, 18% of the world’s total according to the country’s tourism ministry.

“These two regions are both at the epicenter of biodiversity,” said Alexandre Portnoi, a legal advisor with Conservation International who helped organize the deal.

Indonesia benefitted from earlier debt swaps with the U.S. in 2009, 2011 and 2014 that collectively generated nearly $70 million. This is the first to focus on coral reefs rather than Indonesia’s rainforests, which are imperiled by expanding palm oil plantations.

Reefs are harder to conserve at a national level because they are primarily threatened by global climate and temperature changes and pollution, factors that Indonesia alone cannot tackle.

The agreement will see $26 million of Jakarta’s debt written off under the U.S. Tropical Forest and Coral Reef Conservation Act. Conservation International will contribute $3 million and another $1.5 million will come from The Nature Conservancy, another group heavily involved in debt swaps.

Indonesia will commit to reef restoration while local non-profit groups will use conservation fund money to support projects that directly benefit reef ecosystems as well as sustainable livelihoods for those that rely on them.

Portnoi said debt-for-nature swaps were specifically designed to “break the cycle” of debt strains contributing to environmental degradation.