Raja Ampat - the greatest coral reef biological diversity in the world - November 2012

16 photos

Indonesia – and particularly eastern Indonesia – has the largest, most beautiful, most ecologically diverse coral reef system in the world. Consider these amazing facts about this extraordinary pinnacle of marine diversity:

· Indonesia has more that 50,000 square kilometers of coral reefs, which is more than any other nation on earth.

· Indonesia is home to 600 of the almost 800 reef-building coral species in the world.

· Eastern Indonesia has 480 species of hard corals, approximately 60 percent of the world’s hard coral species.

· Eastern Indonesia has the greatest diversity of coral reef fish in the world, with more than 1,650 species.

· One can often find a greater diversity of marine species surrounding a single island in Indonesia than exists in all the coral reefs in the Caribbean!

Unfortunately, more than 80% of Indonesia’s reefs are assessed as threatened or “at risk,” largely from over-exploitation and global climate change, as reported in Reefs at Risk: Southeast Asia, a publication of the World Resources Institute. They are also seriously threatened by the increased acidification of the world's oceans, as a result of the dissolution into seawater of a net two billion tons of carbon dioxide each year. For more on this sad truth, see this website, under the "Raja Ampat" Gallery.