Indonesia and US seal US$35 million coral reef debt swap
- Agreement is the fourth ‘debt-for-nature’ swap the countries have struck since 2009 and is expected to fund 15 years of conservation work
The United States has agreed to forgive US$35 million of Indonesian debt over the next nine years, the US Treasury said on Monday, in return for the Southeast Asian country restoring and preserving coral reefs in what experts estimate is the world’s most biodiverse patch of ocean.
Coral reefs are under increasing threat globally, due largely to climate change which is raising sea temperatures. Data in May showed nearly two-thirds have been subjected over the past year to heat stress bad enough to trigger “bleaching”, which can wipe them out.
The agreement is the fourth “debt-for-nature” swap the two countries have struck since 2009 and is expected to fund at least 15 years of conservation work in two key areas of what is known as the “Coral Triangle”.
The Bird’s Head Seascape and Lesser Sunda-Banda Seascape it targets both span hundreds of thousands of hectares, a habitat for over three quarters of all coral species and more than 3,000 types of fish, turtles, sharks, whales and dolphins.
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