The Indonesian government announced a deal this week to redirect more than $35 million in debt to the United States toward protecting coral reefs in some of the most biodiverse areas on Earth.
This “debt-for-nature swap” will fund coral restoration in two key areas of the Pacific’s Coral Triangle – the Birdshead and Lesser Sunda Banda – which are home to three-quarters of the world’s coral species and more than 3,000 species of fish, turtles, sharks, whales and dolphins, Mark Jones reported for Reuters.
Debt-for-nature swaps aim to alleviate two problems faced by developing countries: high debt burdens and a lack of funding for nature conservation.
Conservation International brokered the first debt-for-nature exchange in Bolivia in 1987. Since then, the exchanges have become a powerful tool for financing nature conservation. Indonesia has participated in three exchanges to date, but this is the first exchange focused on protecting coral reefs.
“We never imagined that this important mechanism for alleviating a heavy debt burden and protecting some of the world’s most precious ecosystems would ultimately unlock billions of dollars for global conservation,” Conservation International CEO M. Sanjayan said in a statement. “We applaud the Indonesian and U.S. governments for their vision and commitment to ocean conservation.”
Conservation International will provide $3 million to support Indonesia’s debt swap.
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Known as the “rainforests of the sea,” coral reefs support a quarter of marine species and are the backbone of healthy marine ecosystems. Additionally, over 500 million people depend on them for food and livelihoods. But they are disappearing fast. Record heat waves, ocean acidification and pollution are all contributing to mass coral bleaching, which is expected to only get worse as climate change accelerates.
Approximately 18 percent of the world’s coral reefs exist in Indonesian waters, providing food, livelihoods and protection from storms to coastal residents.
Indonesia’s trade Tropical Forest and Coral Reef Restoration Act The Trade in Credit Suisse and Coral Reefs Act (TFCCA) allows countries to reduce their debt to the United States in exchange for committing to protect forests and coral reefs. In the 25 years since its adoption, the act has supported swaps in 14 countries, US$415 million To protect tropical forest and coral reef ecosystems.
Alexander Portnoy, a legal adviser to Conservation International who worked on the deal, said the swap “ends a cycle of increasing debt that leads to environmental destruction and opens up new sources of financing for conservation.”
“Countries with high debt levels are more likely to exploit their natural resources to meet their fiscal needs,” he added.
As a global effort to protect and restore nature Gaining an advantageFunds from debt-for-nature exchanges could help fill the funding gap to support these efforts. United Nations Report It found that funding must more than double from the current $154 billion per year to meet climate and biodiversity goals. $384 billion One year until 2025.
Read the full story at Reuters here.
Mary Kate McCoy is a staff writer for Conservation International. Want to read more articles like this? Sign up for email updates and consider supporting our important work.
