Coral Triangle

The Coral Triangle lies in the tropical marine waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste where with at least 500 species of reef-building corals in each ecoregion. This region encompasses portions of two biogeographic regions: the Indonesian-Philippines Region and the Far Southwestern Pacific Region.

The Coral Triangle is a center for biodiversity. It contains more than 75% of the world’s coral global species, has 15 regionally endemic coral species, and shares 41 regional endemic species with Asia. As one would expect, the Coral Triangle has the highest diversity of coral reef fishes in the world with 37% of the world’s coral reef fish species and 56% of the coral reef fishes in the Indo-Pacific region represented among is marine population. More than 3,000 species of fish live in the Coral Triangle, including the largest fish - the whale shark and the "living fossil" coelacanth. It also provides habitat to six out of the world’s of seven marine turtle species.

The biodiversity and natural productivity of the Coral Triangle are under threat from poor marine management including coastal development, overfishing and destructive fishing, a high market demand, disregard for rare and threatened species and well as changes in climate and ocean chemistry.