Report details fossil fuel threat to 'Amazon of the seas'

Fossil fuel exploration is threatening an ever-expanding swath of the Coral Triangle, one of the most biodiverse marine areas in the world, a report said on Saturday.

Issued to coincide with the UN's COP16 summit on biodiversity in Colombia, the report warned that expansion in oil, gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the Indo-Pacific region is putting marine species and the communities that rely on them at risk.

Dubbed the "Amazon of the seas" for its species variety, the Coral Triangle covers over 10 million square kilometers in waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, the Philippines, Timor-Leste and the Solomon Islands.

It contains three-quarters of the world's known coral species, according to monitoring bodies, including the threat-mapping research project Earth Insight, satellite imaging watchdog SkyTruth, and the Center for Energy, Ecology and Development, a Filipino think tank.

The triangle is home to six of the world's seven marine turtle species and is a feeding ground for whales and other marine mammals.

More than 120 million people rely on it for subsistence.

Yet, according to the report, oil and gas concessions and production areas overlap with tens of thousands of square kilometers of marine protected areas.

It noted more than 100 known offshore oil and gas blocks are in the region, and another 450 blocks are being explored for future extraction.

"If all blocks were to go into production, about 16 percent of the Coral Triangle would be directly impacted by fossil fuel development," said the report.

It warned that fossil fuel expansion would increase tanker traffic and the risk of oil spills.

The report said that since July 2020, satellites have spotted 793 oil slicks in the Coral Triangle.

Almost all were created by transiting vessels, and some by oil infrastructure.

"Cumulatively, all slicks covered an area over 24,000 kilometers square – nearly enough oil to cover the land in the Solomon Islands," said the report.

Its authors called for a moratorium on oil, gas, mining, and other industrial activities in environmentally sensitive areas within the Coral Triangle.

They also urged "leapfrogging the use of LNG as a transition fuel" as the world moves away from coal and gas and toward clean energy sources instead.

The report called for the triangle to be designated a "particularly sensitive sea area" in need of special protection from shipping.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, approved two years ago by 196 parties to the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity, set 23 targets to "halt and reverse" biodiversity loss by 2030.

It includes ensuring that 30 percent of marine and coastal areas are "effectively conserved and managed" and 30 percent are "under effective restoration."