World Wildlife Fund

What We Do

Protect Marine Turtles

Give Turtles a Place to Nest

Help protect marine turtles from the impacts of climate change at one key nesting site for a year.
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Ride the tuna highway of the high seas and swim with rare river dolphins in a new edition of WWF's biweekly podcast series. Learn more.

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Make a symbolic Turtle adoption to help save some of the world's most endangered animals from extinction and support WWF's conservation efforts.
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Coral Triangle

Threats

Numbers paint a worrying portrait of coral reefs in Southeast Asia. Over 85 percent of the reefs of Malaysia and Indonesia are threatened.

Though the Coral Triangle is considered the center of marine biological diversity, it is straining to support some of the world’s highest human population densities and growth rates. Its resources directly support the livelihood of 126 million people living within this area, and benefit millions more worldwide.

In addition, the Coral Triangle straddles an area that has emerged as the planet’s economic epicenter. Dramatic population growth and economic development have fueled unsustainable coastal development and boosted demand for expensive marine resources such as tuna, shark fin, turtle products and live reef fish.

All this limits our chances of realizing the full sustainable development potential of the region’s coastal resources. And with every passing year, the window of opportunity to save the Coral Triangle is quickly narrowing.

Climate change

Climate change affects marine biodiversity and the lives of those who depend on the reefs for food and income. Through climate change, higher sea-surface temperatures have caused more severe and more frequent coral bleaching. The 1997-98 El Niño weather event triggered the largest worldwide coral bleaching event ever recorded. In Southeast Asia, an estimated 18 percent of the region's coral reefs were damaged or destroyed.

Depleted resources

Marine resources are being depleted at an unsustainable rate to supply both subsistence fisheries and burgeoning seafood markets within the Asia-Pacific region and for global markets. More than 75 percent of the world’s aquaculture industry is

Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in the back of a truck scheduled for slaughtering as an offering in a religious ceremony. Bali, Indonesia
© Jürgen Freund / WWF-Canon

centered in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in the Philippines and Indonesia, and increasingly Malaysia. Across the Indo-Pacific, 79 percent of spawning aggregations (reproductive gatherings) of reef fish have stopped forming or are in decline. And tuna, shark fin, turtle products and reef fish are being taken out of the water at unsustainable rates. Mangroves, which provide critical habitat for many species of fish, are also being cleared for development, tourism activities, and for increasing aquaculture and fuel-wood demands.

Overfishing and destructive fishing methods

With a growing population and persistent poverty across Southeast Asia, corals reefs are being over-exploited through increased fishing pressure, and highly damaging techniques such as blast and poison fishing. Less direct impacts on corals can be just as dangerous. As deforestation continues across the region, sediment run-off flows to coastal areas where it smothers reefs. Throw into the mix the construction of roads, airports, channels, ports, and buildings, including tourist resorts, and you have a recipe for potential ecological disaster.