Collaboration for Coral Reef Management in the South China Sea

The South China Sea is the largest sea in Southeast Asia bordered by nine countries, i.e., Cambodia, the People’s Republic of China, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Thus it forms a semi-enclosed large marine ecosystem. Southeast Asia is the global centre of coral reefs, both in terms of extent and species diversity. An estimated 34% of the earth’s coral reefs are located in the Southeast Asian seas which occupies only 2.5% of the total sea surface. The ecological and economic importance of the coral reefs in the South China Sea has long been recognized. The location of the South China Sea at the junction between the Pacific and Indian Ocean basins has resulted in it becoming a centre of aggregation of marine species from both Oceans. More than half of Southeast Asia’s scleractinian coral species is found in the South China Sea. A wide variation in coral species diversity at different sites in the South China Sea reflects the influence of physical parameters and anthropogenic disturbances.

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