Debt Write-Off to Save Coral Reefs in Indonesia

The US is cancelling $35 million in debt to Indonesia in exchange for restoring and preserving coral reefs in an area that scientists say is the most biodiverse marine area in the world.

This news was first reported by Reuters.

Coral reefs in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Photo: Johan Candert

Coral reefs around the world are under severe pressure as oceans warm. In May this year, data emerged that nearly two-thirds of all the world’s corals have been exposed to heat stress that threatens to trigger coral bleaching.

Indonesia has about 5.1 million hectares of coral reefs, 18% of the world’s total according to the country’s tourism ministry, but this year’s bleaching problem has already had a devastating impact.

Coral reefs are harder for individual nations to preserve than their rainforests and wetlands because the threat is global greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. But this agreement, signed in early July this year, hopes to make a difference.