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THE CORAL CHALLENGE | 11

CONDITION

Cyclone
Acanthaster
Epizootics Mudslide
Acanthaster
Bleaching
Cyclone
Bleaching

Bleaching
Diseases

Resilience Resilience Impact of human activities

+ an increasing number
of extreme events
= Overall trend of decline

HUMAN ACTIVITIES

YEARS
Changes to coral reefs over time
(source 2020 review of coral reef condition ©IFRECOR)

STATE OF EMERGENCY
Corals are amongst the species most at risk of extinction.
THE CONDITION OF CORAL 90% of reefs could disappear by 2050, even if global warming
REEFS WORLDWIDE was limited to 1.5°C. (source: IPCC)

The ICRI presented its initial conclusions from the
global report on the condition and changes to coral
reefs.* A summary (the first since 2008) which should RESTORING THE REEFS
resonate strongly with scientific, governmental and
international committees. The report, which focuses An expert in reef restoration, Margaux Hein - a consul-
specifically on hard corals and algae, offers an overall tant with the United Nations Environment Programme
analysis, with some sites having recorded more than (UNEP) - presented an ICRI and UNEP report from
20 consecutive years of data. It includes 10 regional January 2021, which offers technical guidelines to
chapters, as well as themed topics such as restora- optimise reef restoration in order to improve eco-
tion and reef diseases. system services. “This solution should be supported
by more general initiatives, like climate action”, the
*The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network scientist added.
(GCRMN) report Reef restoration will soon be able to rely on collec-
40 years of data tions of the World Coral Conservatory, which should
2 million observations house 2/3 of known species in a network of aqua-
12,000 sites monitored
75 countries with reefs riums meeting high environmental standards to “pro-
tect precious biological assets”, explains researcher
Nadia Ounais, from the Oceanographic Institute of
Monaco. “DNA collected from these corals should
help us improve the study of these species in a na-
tural setting, and develop biomedical applications in-
cluding assisted evolution techniques to make coral
more resistant to climate change”, adds Professor
Didier Zoccola, from the Monaco Scientific Centre.