Coral Triangle

In 2009, the six governments of the Coral Triangle (Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste) committed to safeguarding their marine resources and ensuring income and food security for the millions of people who depend on them.

To help these governments, WWF, Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy came together with funding from USAID to form the Coral Triangle Support Partnership (CTSP). CTSP works in policy, fisheries management, marine protected areas and climate change adaptation.

A few successes that have come out of this partnership include:

Positive Results for People and Wildlife

Visitors to Tetepare Island, the largest uninhabited island in the South Pacific, can swim with dugongs and dolphins or witness “turtle rodeos,” where local rangers leap off boats to tag marine turtles. Turtles are tagged to keep a record of populations and to learn about their habits and movements. The waters that surround the island teem with life thanks to the conservation efforts of Tetepare descendants.

Widespread logging continues to threaten the rest of the Solomon Islands and now a growing population increasingly puts pressure on marine resources, such as fish. Tetepare’s people chose to ensure the future of their livelihoods by preserving the island’s natural resources, essentially saying no to logging and yes to conservation.

WWF, as part of the CTSP, has helped these concerned islanders form and manage their own marine reserve. They carefully monitor the reefs, patrol no take zones, collect data on endangered leatherback turtles and ensure their nests are protected. They also operate a small ecolodge that benefits the community.

Tetepare Island is a testament to how conservation can provide local benefits while safeguarding an irreplaceable natural area.

Watch this video to see the wonderful story of Tetepare Island’s conservation success unfold:

The Tetepare Descendants’ Association has been internationally recognized for these sustainable development achievements and received the United Nations Development Programmes’ Equator Prize in 2012.

Helping Reef Fish in Malaysia

The Coral Triangle Support Partnership has enabled WWF to repopulate Malaysia’s reefs with an important fish, the humphead wrasse. These enormous fish can grow up to 6 feet long and help keep coral reefs healthy.

Unfortunately, the rare humphead wrasse is also valued as a luxury food as a part of the live reef fish trade predominant across Southeast Asia, and thus is highly vulnerable to overfishing. In Malaysia, WWF helped stop export of this important fish and has been working with partners to repopulate protected coral reefs with wrasses that were formerly intended for sale through a buyback program with local fishermen. Since 2010, over 800 humphead wrasse have been released back into the wild.

Raising Environmental Awareness

WWF, with support from CTSP, has helped raise environmental awareness in Malaysia especially among its youth. WWF works with a local youth group on Banggii Island in northern Sabah to spread environmental messages, and it’s making a difference. For example, some villages have created marine sanctuaries that are essentially no take zones in their waters.  These no take zones serve as fish nurseries and provide safe habitat for species to recover from overfishing.