Status of Coral Reefs in East Asian Seas Region: 2014 Edited by KIMURA Tadashi, TUN Karenne and CHOU Loke Ming Front Cover: Shallow coral reef in Sekisei Lagoon, Okinawa, Japan ( c Mitsuhiro Ueno, 2014 ) Back Cover: Acanthaster predation in Kamise, Kagoshima, Japan ( c Naoko Dewa, 2014) c Ministry of the Environment, Japan, 2014 Ministry of the Environment: 1-2-2 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo 100-8975, Japan Telephone: (+81) 3 5521 8273 Facsimile: (+81) 3 3591 3228 [email protected] www.env.go.jp Japan Wildlife Research Center 3-7-7 Koto-bashi, Sumida, Tokyo 110-8606, Japan Telephone (+81) 3 6659 6332 Facsimile (+81) 3 6659 5633 www.jwrc.or.jp This Report has been edited and organized by Japan Wildlife Research Center by contract with the Ministry of Environment. However, the analyses and recommendations in this Report are the fruit of collaborative efforts by the GCRMN National Coordinators of countries in East Asian Seas Region and do not necessarily reflect views of the Ministry of Environment. Each author is responsible for his/her article in the report. CONTENTS FORWARD………………………………………………………………………………i PREFACE………………………………………………………………………………iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY……………………………………………………………………v 1. GCRMN HISTORY IN EAST ASIA……………………………………………………1 1.1. Coral Reef Monitoring in Southeast and East Asia………………………………3 1.2. Progress of the regional network on coral reef monitoring in East Asia……………………………………………………………………15 2. CORAL MIGRATION TO THE HIGH LATITUDE AREAS IN EAST AND NORTH ASIA…21 2.1. Migration of corals in Taiwan…………………………………………………23 2.2. Migrating coral community in Shikoku, Japan…………………………………31 3. CONSERVATION OF MARINE AREA WITH MULTIPLE DEMANDS…………………35 3.1. Managing Singapore’s coral reefs……………………………………………37 4. STATUS OF CORAL REEFS IN EAST AND NORTH ASIA………………………………47 4.1. MAINLAND CHINA……………………………………………………………49 4.2. TAIWAN………………………………………………………………………69 4.3. JAPAN…………………………………………………………………………79 4.4. SOUTH KOREA…………………………………………………………………99 5. STATUS OF CORAL REEFS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA…………………………………105 5.1. CAMBODIA…………………………………………………………………107 5.2. INDONESIA…………………………………………………………………115 5.3. MALAYSIA……………………………………………………………………131 5.4. MYANMER……………………………………………………………………139 5.5. PHILIPPINES…………………………………………………………………153 5.6. THAILAND……………………………………………………………………167 5.7. VIETNAM……………………………………………………………………187 FOREWORD This regional report is a direct response to the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) strategy on research and monitoring determined in the ‘Call to Action’ developed in Dumaguete City, The Philippines in 1995 which promotes cooperation among national research programs and monitoring networks. Responding to the ‘Call to Action’, the Ministry of the Environment of Japan and the Japan Wildlife Research Center, in association with the regional coordinators on coral monitoring for Northeast and Southeast Asia worked with national coral reef monitoring coordinators to produce a regional status of coral reefs that was launched at the 10th International Coral Reef Symposium in Okinawa, Japan in 2004 and which was subseQuently summarised in the GCRMN global report released in December 2004. This 2014 report contains updated information from East Asian countries and is intended to provide the latest information on coral reef threats, problems and solutions to governments, natural resource managers, NGOs and communities, along with a series of practical recommendations to improve the health of these reefs. While the Northeast and Southeast Asian regions support the highest coral reef biodiversity, it also contains large populations of people depending directly or indirectly on coral reefs for their livelihood. An encouraging feature of this report is that this region also contains a wealth of trained and committed coral reef scientists assessing the status of the reefs and managing them for longterm sustainability. A major objective for governments of the region is to make full use of this human capacity to conserve these valuable resources and their diversity for the peoples of the region and the world. This is possible, but it will reQuire the formation of partnerships among all key stakeholders. i I particularly welcome this book that brings together the national status of coral reef from Southeast and Southeast Asian countries into one volume. The GCRMN is specifically tasked with providing information on the status of coral reefs to assist in their effective conservation and management. The global reports can only provide a brief summary of data and information from individual countries; therefore it is essential to provide more comprehensive data and information for national governments and regional organisations to assist them in their efforts to conserve coral reefs for use by their peoples into the future. I particularly wish to congratulate the national and regional authors and the people who have pulled this material together: the Ministry of the Environment and Japan Wildlife Research Center for an excellent and useful product. Clive Wilkinson Former Coordinator, Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network Townsville Australia ii PREFACE The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) was launched in 1996 with the purpose of collecting information on the state of coral reefs and raising awareness about coral reef conservation. This was in response to the “Call to Action” by the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) in 1995 at its Dumaguete meeting, which encouraged the 1) promotion of linkages between regional and global research and monitoring networks, and 2) use of regional networks to achieve better coordination and cooperation among national research programmes. In response to the first point, a series of reports ‘The Status of Coral Reefs of the World’ edited by Clive Wilkinson was published in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008 and they represented a massive global effort at documenting the condition of the world’s reefs based on national monitoring initiatives. In response to the second point, Japan’s Ministry of Environment and the Japan Wildlife Research Center took the lead for the East Asian Seas region and published the ‘Status of Coral Reefs in East Asian Seas Region’ in 2004, 2010 and this latest edition. The aim is to provide more detailed information on the coral reef condition in a region that has the world’s richest coral reef biodiversity and also the highest threats. A decade has passed since the first regional report was published and we are grateful to Clive Wilkinson for sharing his valuable experience with the GCRMN and the East Asian Regional network. An accurate recollection of the original intention of the reef monitoring network will help to prevent institutional memory from waning. This is also the first time that the regional network received a report from Myanmar, which helps to complete a gap apparent in previous reports. The national reports iii indicated a mix of reef loss due to coastal development, degradation due to human stressors and bleaching, and reef recovery from impacts ranging from crownof thorns outbreak to heavy storms. Management responses vary between countries but are important for experience sharing. Two reports are included of coral species migrating to higher latitudes in response to sea temperature rise related to climate change and more scleractinian species are establishing in the southern octocoral dominated reefs of Jeju, South Korea. One of the immediate future goals of the East Asian Seas regional network is to analyze reef status trends in response to threats and management over the long term. Continued monitoring and reporting are necessary as they provide the basis for such an analysis and it is our hope that national coordinators, all operating on a voluntary basis will maintain their interest and passion for this significant regional cause. Tadashi Kimura GCRMN East and North Asia coordinator / Japan Wildlife Research Center Karenne Tun GCRMN Southeast Asia coordinator / National Parks Board, Singapore Loke Ming Chou Chairman, Asia Pacific Coral Reef Society iv EXECUTIVE SUMMARY GCRMN HISTORY IN EAST ASIA 1. Coral Reef Monitoring in Southeast and East Asia From the mid 1980s to 1990s, the ASEANAustralia Living Coastal Resources (LCR) project and the ASEANUS Coastal Resources Management Project (CRMP) were key projects that built the capacity and developed a strong network for coral reef research and monitoring in the Southeast Asian region. The concept of GCRMN ‘Nodes’ was adopted with 17 Node regions developed including Southeast Asia and East Asia. The Southeast Asia Node covered the ASEAN countries with coordination provided by coral reef researchers at the National University of Singapore, headed by Chou Loke Ming and subsequently Karenne Tun. The East Asian Node included China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan and was coordinated by marine scientists based in Okinawa and assisted by Japanese Government environment agencies. The first reports on the status of reefs in Southeast and East Asia were published in 1998 following presentations in 1996 at the 8th International Coral Reef Symposium in Panama City. These reports based on the authors’ extensive reef experience were written prior to the advent of active GCRMN monitoring. Subsequent reports based on GCRMN monitoring appeared soon after. GCRMN leaders in Southeast and East Asia have continued to support the production of ‘Status of Coral Reefs of the World’ reports in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2008 (edited by Clive Wilkinson through the comprehensive regional chapters with increasing data quality and quantity.