Review of Corals from Indonesia
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UNEP-WCMC technical report Review of corals from Indonesia (Coral species subject to EU decisions where identification to genus level is acceptable for trade purposes ) (Version edited for public release) 2 Review of corals from Indonesia (coral species subject to EU decisions where identification to genus level is acceptable for trade purposes ) Prepared for The European Commission, Directorate General Environment, Directorate E - Global & Regional Challenges, LIFE ENV.E.2. – Global Sustainability, Trade & Multilateral Agreements , Brussels, Belgium Prepared November 201 4 Copyright European Commission 2014 Citation UNEP-WCMC. 2014. Review of corals from Indonesia ( coral species subject to EU decisions where identification to genus level is acceptable for trade purposes) . UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge. The UNEP World Conser vation Monitoring Centre (UNEP -WCMC) is the specialist biodiversity assessment of the United Nations Environment Programme, the world’s foremost intergovernmental environmental organization. The Centre has been in operation for over 30 years, combining sci entific research with policy advice and the development of decision tools. We are able to provide objective, scientifically rigorous products and services to help decision - makers recognize the value of biodiversity and apply this knowledge to all that they do. To do this, we collate and verify data on biodiversity and ecosystem services that we analyze and interpret in comprehensive assessments, making the results available in appropriate forms for national and international level decision -makers and busine sses. To ensure that our work is both sustainable and equitable we seek to build the capacity of partners where needed, so that they can provide the same services at national and regional scales. 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Printing on paper from environmentally sustainable forests and recycled fibre is encouraged. 3 Contents Introduction and summary ................................................................................................................... 4 Overview of status and management of corals in Indonesia ............................................................. 5 Review of genera ................................................................................................................................... 14 Acropora spp. ..................................................................................................................................... 15 Tubastraea spp. ................................................................................................................................. 21 Turbinaria spp. ................................................................................................................................. 25 Caulastraea spp. ............................................................................................................................... 31 Cyphastrea spp. ............................................................................................................................... 36 Fungia spp. ........................................................................................................................................ 40 Lobophyllia spp. ................................................................................................................................ 45 Pectinia spp. ...................................................................................................................................... 50 Stylophora spp. ................................................................................................................................. 54 Goniopora spp................................................................................................................................... 58 Porites spp......................................................................................................................................... 64 Acanthophyllia deshayesiana .......................................................................................................... 70 Cynarina lacrimalis ........................................................................................................................... 71 References ............................................................................................................................................. 74 Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 79 4 Introduction and summary This document provides a review of the status and management of coral harvest and trade from Indonesia, with particular focus on 11 genera selected for more in- depth review at SRG69. Those genera include species for which there are current EU decisions in place at species level for Indonesia, yet identification to genus level is acceptable under CITES Notification No. 2013/035, for the purpose of implementing Resolutions Conf. 11.17 (Rev. CoP16) on National reports and Conf. 12.3 (Rev. CoP16) on Permits and certificates . These decisions may therefore provide implementation challenges, and the present document provides a basis for the SRG to reassess them. The SRG selected a number of genera for in-depth review for Indonesia, in order to form an opinion at genus level where possible: Acropora, Tubastraea, Turbinaria, Caulastraea, Cyphastrea , Fungia, Lobophyllia, Pectinia, Stylophora, Goniopora, and Porites. The genera selected included cases where quotas have been published at species level but also at genus level; or for which there was (virtually) no trade at species level, while there was trade at genus level. Recognizing the recommendation in Res. Conf. 11.10 (Rev. CoP15) that Parties should “adopt the principles and practice of an ecosystem approach”, genus level opinions may warrant being applied across the relevant genera. This review also includes species-level reviews of Acanthophyllia deshayesiana and Cynarina lacrymalis from Indonesia. These taxa have been selected for more in-depth review through the ‘Review of species selected on the basis of the 2014 quota analysis’, but are included in this document to allow the SRG to consider all the corals from Indonesia that are to be assessed at SRG70 together. Overview of status and 5 management of corals in Indonesia Indonesia, a key biodiversity hotspot for corals, is the largest exporter of corals globally. This section provides background information on the status and trends of corals within the country, threats affecting corals, and management actions taken to ensure sustainability of the trade. Status and trends Indonesia, globally the largest exporter of live corals, was reported to account for an average of 70% of corals in trade over the period 2000-2010 (Wood et al. , 2012). The country is the world’s largest archipelagic state (Asian Development Bank, 2014; Figure 1) and its coral reef area was estimated at 50 875 km 2 (Wilkinson, 2008), amounting to approximately 18% of the global coral reefs (Center for Ocean Solutions, 2009). Indonesia, together with Malaysia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea form part of the Coral Triangle biodiversity hotspot (Hoeksema, 2007; Tittensor et al ., 2010). Indonesia’s archipelago is home to an “extraordinary wealth of coral reef organisms” (Allen, 2008). The Bird’s Head Peninsula [West Papua province] is particularly biodiversity rich, with 574 coral species recorded in this location (Turak and Souhoka, 2003). Other ecoregions within the Coral Triangle also display a high diversity of corals, which was found to primarily be due to overlap of the range of species with wide distributions and to a much lesser degree due to endemism (only about 2.5% of coral diversity in the Coral Triangle is due to endemism) (Veron et al. , 2009). Coral growth was reported to be highest in eastern Indonesia (Asian Development Bank, 2014) and these eastern reefs were considered to be an important source of coral seeding populations for the whole archipelago (Wallace, Carden et al. , 2001). However, Indonesia was reported to have experienced a rapid decline of marine resources over the last three decades, with urgent conservation measures needed (Allen, 2008). The status of reefs (Table 1) was considered to be poorest in western Indonesia in 2000 (Dirhamsyah, 2005) and t he condition of coral reefs was found to have declined over the period 2004-2008 (Wilkinson, 2008), with many reefs considered severely damaged (Scaps et al. , 2007). Arias-Gonzalez et al. (2011) warned that even small changes in coral covers may lead to cascades in trophic structure, ultimately affecting the people relying on services from corals reefs. Table 1: Some assessments of the status