"<h2>Reef-Dependent Population</h2>In the East Asia, 590 million people benefit from coral reefs, including 170 million people who are likely highly dependent on reefs for their food or livelihood.(Estimated using WorldPop and World Vector Shoreline. People within 30 km of reefs and 10 km of the coast were considered \"highly dependent,\" while those within 100 km of reefs \"benefit.\")&nbsp;"

"<h2>Tourism</h2>Coral reef-associated tourist expenditure in East Asia is valued at $11.3 billion annually. This includes on-reef recreation (snorkeling, diving, recreational fishing, glass-bottom boat tours, etc.) as well as reef-adjacent benefits (such as white, sandy beaches and sheltered waters)."

Value

Vulnerability

Infrastructure

Habitat

Value and Importance of Coral Reefs

"27-30%&nbsp;of the world's coral reefs are in the&nbsp;East Asia&nbsp;region. Different sources offer different figures for the total area of reef cover:&nbsp; Source &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Area (km²)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Global Share <a href=\"https://data.unep-wcmc.org/datasets/1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Global Distribution of</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;40,249&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;27.0%<a href=\"https://data.unep-wcmc.org/datasets/1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Coral Reefs (UNEP-WCMC)</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"https://gcrmn.net/products/reports/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Global Coral Reef Monitoring</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;78,272&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;30.1%<a href=\"https://gcrmn.net/products/reports/\\\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Network (GCRMN) Report</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 24.5&nbsp;% of&nbsp;East Asian&nbsp;coral reefs are located within marine protected areas;&nbsp;only 1% are&nbsp;in “Fully or Highly Protected” areas.&nbsp;"

"<h2>Mangroves</h2>East Asia&nbsp;possesses&nbsp;about&nbsp;33%&nbsp;of the world's mapped mangroves. Between 1996 and 2016, the region&nbsp;lost&nbsp;5% of its mangrove area&nbsp;(a net loss of&nbsp;2,366&nbsp;km²). This net change included both&nbsp;2,934&nbsp;km² of loss and&nbsp;568&nbsp;km² of gain.&nbsp;&nbsp;As of 2016, the region had&nbsp;44,963&nbsp;km² of mangrove forest.&nbsp;"

Ecosystems

Protected Areas

Coral Reefs, Mangroves, and Protection

"<h2>Local Threats</h2>Local activities and pollution threaten over&nbsp;90%&nbsp;of reefs in&nbsp;East Asia, with overfishing&nbsp;and destructive fishing&nbsp;being the most pervasive threats.&nbsp;Watershed-based pollution and sedimentation and coastal development&nbsp;are also very widespread threats.&nbsp;"

"<h2>Coral Bleaching Conditions</h2>In&nbsp;East Asia&nbsp;80% of&nbsp;coral reefs will experience severe coral bleaching conditions at least twice per decade by the 2030s. By the 2040s, such conditions will occur annually (on average) for&nbsp;80% of East Asian&nbsp;reefs.&nbsp;"

"<h2>Ocean Acidification</h2>By the end of this decade,&nbsp;most reefs in&nbsp;East Asia&nbsp;will be situated in conditions considered marginal for coral growth, based on ocean acidity and the availability of aragonite.&nbsp;During the 2030’s, all reefs will be in areas rated poor.&nbsp;"

Habitats

Local Threats

Global Threats

Local and Global Threats to Coral Reefs

"<h2>Live Hard Coral Cover</h2>Analysis of trends in the condition of coral reefs in&nbsp;East Asia&nbsp;was limited by&nbsp;the availability of historical data,&nbsp;the distribution of survey sites across the region, and the frequency of surveys. The initial baseline (1983) is relatively low&nbsp;compared with historical and anecdotal accounts of coral cover in the region, suggesting that the earliest data provided reflected an already altered state of coral reefs.&nbsp;Most&nbsp;survey&nbsp;sites (82%) have been surveyed only once (so documenting change within most sites is not possible).&nbsp; The monitoring data compiled by GCRMN suggest that live hard coral cover in East Asia has&nbsp;increased slightly over the past 37 years (from 32.8 in 1983 to 36.8 in 2019), but there has been a decline over the last decade equating to a loss of almost 11% of the hard coral cover.&nbsp;Between 1983 and 1999, live&nbsp;hard&nbsp;coral cover remained relatively stable with only minor fluctuations. Between 1999 and 2009, hard coral cover increased from 32.9% to 40.8%, but then declined abruptly to 35% by 2012,&nbsp;because of&nbsp;the mass coral bleaching event&nbsp;in 2010. Coral cover showed small signs of recovery over the next three&nbsp;years but&nbsp;declined to 33.9% in 2017 likely due to the 2016 mass coral bleaching event. Since then, coral cover has recovered to around 36.8%&nbsp;&nbsp;"

"<h2>Algae Cover</h2>The first records of the cover of algae were collected in 1986 when&nbsp;average cover was 14.1%. During the subsequent 26 years, the average cover of algae across the region has generally declined, reaching a minimum of 6.9% in 2011. Since 2011, the cover of algae has fluctuated between 7.4% and 9.1% but has remained relatively low, most recently&nbsp;at 7.9%&nbsp;(in 2019).&nbsp;&nbsp;"

"Modeled cover of live hard coral cover (left) and algae (right) for the East Asia region. The solid line represents the predicted marginal mean and ribbons represent 80% (lighter shade) and 95% (darker shade) credible intervals. Grey areas of the temporal series represent times for which no observed data were available."

"<h1>Summary</h1> The East Asian region is a center for marine biological diversity, as well as for high coastal population density and use of resources. The region possesses&nbsp;an estimated&nbsp;27% to&nbsp;30% of the world’s coral reefs&nbsp;(the highest of any GCRMN region)&nbsp;and one-third of all mapped mangroves. East Asia incudes the “Coral&nbsp;Triangle”, a global&nbsp;&nbsp;epicenter of marine biodiversity, with the world’s greatest diversity of reef-building coral species (nearly 600),&nbsp;more than 2,000 reef fish species, and economically important fisheries habitat.&nbsp;The region has the largest population dependent on coral reefs,&nbsp;with an estimated&nbsp;590 million people&nbsp;benefiting&nbsp;from coral reefs, including&nbsp;170 million&nbsp;people&nbsp;who are likely highly dependent on reefs for their food or livelihood.&nbsp;Coral reef-associated tourist expenditure in East Asia is valued at&nbsp;$11.3 billion annually&nbsp;(over 30% of global total), with about half of this associated with on-reef recreation, such as diving&nbsp;and snorkeling.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Despite these high values and&nbsp;the global importance of these reefs,&nbsp;threats to reefs are high across most of the East Asia region. Dependence on coral reefs both for local consumption and for seafood exports has led to significant impacts, driven by overfishing,&nbsp;expansion of coastal aquaculture&nbsp;and removal&nbsp;of mangroves. In addition,&nbsp;land use change&nbsp;is contributing&nbsp;to siltation and eutrophication in coastal waters, and&nbsp;marine plastics and microplastics&nbsp;are a growing problem.&nbsp;Warming seas are projected to cause more frequent coral bleaching in the future, making it vital that local threats be reduced to increase the resilience of these valuable reefs. At present, only&nbsp;24.5 %of East Asian coral reefs are located within marine protected areas, with&nbsp;only&nbsp;1 % in&nbsp;fully or&nbsp;highly&nbsp;protected&nbsp;areas.&nbsp;Given the high values provided by and high reliance on coral reefs&nbsp;across the region, it is economically prudent to improve fisheries and costal management,&nbsp;to manage tourism sustainably, and to&nbsp;expand and effectively manage MPAs and highly protected areas –&nbsp;to reduce pressures and increase&nbsp;the resilience of these irreplaceable marine resources.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; For more detail on the East Asia region and its subregions see the GCRMN global report&nbsp;<a href=\"https://gcrmn.net/2020-report/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2020</a>,&nbsp;and the GCRMN regional report&nbsp;<a href=\"https://gcrmn.net/resource/status-coral-reefs-east-asian-seas-region-2018/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">Status of Coral Reefs in the East Asia Seas Region: 2018</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;"

The East Asia region includes Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.   

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Coral Reefs: East Asia

Importance, status and outlook for coral reefs in the East Asia region

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