According to Dr Susan Gardner, Director of the Ecosystems Division at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the world’s largest coral reef has an important message for us and we should pay attention
As a student back in the 1980s, I travelled over 13,000 km from New York to the Solomon Islands to take a tropical marine biology course. Underwater, using scuba gear instead of desks and notebooks, was an opportunity to value the ecological cycles and interdependencies of species that rely on centuries-old reefs. It was one of those moments that set me on course for where I am today.
I was not surprised when scientists recently observed a 300-year-old coral colony in the Solomon Islands, so big it looked like a shipwreck that can be spotted from outer space. With about one billion polyps, it is possibly the world’s largest coral.
Though identified as one single organism, its existence is only made possible through cooperation. The flamboyant colours of corals are the result of an intimate collaboration between them and the algae that lives in their tissues. This delicate algae-coral symbiosis is essential to the coral’s survival.
Corals: The ocean’s most biodiverse ecosystem
Corals are the ocean’s most biodiverse ecosystem: covering under 1% of the seafloor, they support at least a quarter of marine species. They generate a wide range of “ecosystem services,” enabling global fisheries to thrive, providing livelihoods for about one billion people and essential proteins to almost 60 million coastal communities, supporting medical research and tourism, preserving cultural heritage and protecting against storms. Overall, their services are valued up to $9.9 trillion annually.
Local communities in the Solomon Islands use traditional knowledge to manage the riches of the reef sustainably. Thanks to centuries of stewardship, it has outlived some of the worst periods of human history, including World War II. Yet, it might not survive the perils of the 21st century.
Since I swam in those crystal waters almost four decades ago, the ocean surface has warmed in the South-West Pacific region by over 0.4°C per decade, about three times faster than the global average.
What impact does global warming have on coral reefs?
Global warming of more than 1.5 °C spells a catastrophe for 90% of the world’s remaining coral reefs. In the last 15 years alone, we have lost 14% of the world’s coral reefs, some of which have existed for as much as 5,000 years. 77% of coral reefs have just been impacted by a fourth record-setting global coral bleaching event. Now 44% of reef-building coral species globally are at risk of extinction.
This is because hot temperatures break the algae-coral partnership. That leaves corals bleached, deprived of their breathtaking natural beauty and more vulnerable to disease. Even if some corals eventually recover from a bleaching episode, most will not withstand long and repeated heatwaves. Ocean acidification also weakens corals’ ability to create their skeleton.
Further challenges for coral reefs
More challenges include overfishing, sewage and agricultural runoff, deep sea mining and offshore oil and gas operations. Despite the Solomon Islands’ national plastic regulations in 2023, their reefs – like other remote, pristine corners of the Earth – suffer from global plastic pollution generated thousands of kilometres away.
Are we capable of turning this around? Absolutely. We understand these problems, and we have the technologies to solve them.
Our troubles – and the troubles for coral reefs – are not based on a limited ability to act. We live in an age of polarisation, with a surge in armed conflicts, nuclear proliferation, rising inequality, climate-fueled migration and displacement, and technologies that increase mis/disinformation.
The survival of the world’s biodiversity, including coral reefs
All of this undermines our ability to work together to address the triple environmental crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. None of these can be adequately addressed without close collaboration across nations and socio-economic sectors.
Many of us are adamant and committed. In the Solomon Islands, the waters around the mega coral are owned by the local community, which helps to protect it. Scientists from diverse backgrounds continue making the sort of discoveries in the Solomon Islands elsewhere, as 80% of the ocean remains unexplored and 91% of species unidentified.
Countries have committed funding for the survival of the world’s biodiversity, including coral reefs, through the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Sharm El-Sheik Adaptation Agenda. Private investor groups have joined governments and multilateral banks to advance the Coral Reef Breakthrough in partnership with the Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR) and the UN High-Level Climate Champions.
By supporting over 400 reef-positive enterprises and sustainable financial mechanisms, GFCR aims at facilitating at least 30,000 jobs, benefitting over 20 million community members and over 3 million hectares of coral reefs (about 12.5% of Earth’s remaining reefs).
Businesses of all sizes are already engaged in preventing the causes for coral reef degradation by operating waste treatment and recycling facilities, providing coral reef insurance, promoting sustainable aquaculture and agriculture, ecotourism enterprises, blue carbon credits, and sustainable finance mechanisms for Marine Protected Areas.
Forge stronger international cooperation for biodiversity
It is painful that in my lifetime, the global crises of species extinction, warming waters and plastic pollution could completely overwhelm the benefits of wisdom that Solomon Island communities have passed down to their children. Species within the reef ecosystem depend on each other, and we depend on them.
The giant Pacific Ocean coral provides us all with an important lesson: resilience is only possible when complex systems work together. Many among us are already on board, but to survive, the world’s coral reefs would need many more of us to get the message and forge stronger international cooperation for biodiversity.
