New Caledonia takes bold strides to further protect some of the world’s most pristine and species-diverse coral reefs
If you want a vision of paradise then that could be the French overseas territory of New Caledonia (Nouvelle-Calédonie), a string of tropical, South Pacific coral islands far from anywhere. The archipelago is renowned for having some of the planet’s healthiest and most biodiverse coral reefs, which includes the world’s second-largest barrier reef.
With only around 1.5 per cent of the world’s coral reefs considered to be in pristine or near-pristine condition and New Caledonia being home to a third of that total, this makes the reefs of New Caledonia a rare exception to worldwide trends. Across the world’s tropical seas, coral reefs are in serious trouble with a 2021 study finding that coral is the marine organism most impacted by human activity and a 2017 UNESCO report estimating that most of the world’s reef systems will die completely by the close of this century under the ‘business as usual’ emissions scenario.
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Despite the archipelago’s remoteness from any major land mass, and the good condition of the corals found there, the government of New Caledonia has been taking no chances. In 2014 the government created the Natural Park of the Coral Sea which encompasses the totality of the territory’s exclusive economic zone waters at up to 1.3 million square kilometres.
However, many industrial activities were still permitted within all but two per cent of New Caledonian waters. But now the government has gone further still and banned all industrial activities, including fishing, oil drilling and mining from 10 per cent of its waters.
Scientists from the NGO Conservation International worked with the government and local stakeholders, including representatives of the fishing industry in order to pinpoint priority areas – including the archipelago’s famed sea mounts – where no industrial activity at all would be allowed. The newly protected areas were also selected so as to provide marine corridors between neighbouring existing or planned marine reserves.
And the government isn’t finished yet. A bill is close to passing that will establish a ten-year moratorium on deep-sea mining, which causes extensive underwater environmental damage.
Although this all bodes well for New Caledonian reefs the world still has a long way to go until we meet the goal of protecting 30 per cent of our blue planet.
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