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The researchers developed a "stress test" for coral reefs, identifying the ones they think most likely to survive rising sea temperatures. Those reefs--"reefs of hope," they call them--that pass the test should become a priority for conservationists, say the researchers.

Preserving a species of weed-eating fish may be the key to saving the world's coral reefs from being engulfed by weed as human and climate impacts grow. A new study by the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) has found that weed-eaters like parrotfish and surgeonfish can keep coral reefs clear of weed up to a point.

Science and experience have supported this fact for the last 20 years in the Coral Triangle countries of Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, where various forms of MPA are being implemented to protect coral reef habitats, manage local reef-associated fisheries and generate income for local residents through improved fishing and diving tourism enterprises.

"Take, for example, the Caribbean nation of Belize. A recent analysis by several of my colleagues concluded that the country's coral reefs contribute the equivalent to 10 to 15 per cent of the nation's GDP, primarily through tourism and fisheries. Likewise, the avoided damage to buildings and infrastructure that reefs provide by serving as a "speed bump" for tropical storms equates to the same GDP percentage."

"Research has shown that marine protected areas (MPAs)-areas where fishing and other potentially destructive activities are regulated-are benefitting, not just the fish habitats they are known to aid, but nearby coral reefs as well. "That is, while coral cover initially continued to decrease in the MPA's first few years, decline slowed and then eventually stabilized after several years of MPA establishment."

"East Lombok fishermen exploiting coral reefs off West Nusa Tenggara are being blamed for causing two islets to sink."

The world's coral reefs are in danger of dying out in the next 20 years unless carbon emissions are cut drastically, warns a coalition of scientists led by Sir David Attenborough.

"Coral reefs are dying, and scientists and governments around the world are contemplating what will happen if they disappear altogether. The idea positively scares them."

Research by Dr Johnathan Kool of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University, and his colleagues, has established that the richest marine region on Earth - the Coral Triangle between Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines - depends vitally for its diversity and resilience on coral and fish larvae swept in from the South China Sea and Solomon Islands.

Cool Green Science: The Conservation Blog of The Nature Conservancy - A blog on conservation, from migratory birds to coral reefs, from rainforests to climate change to personal green technology.

The steady loss of forests, soils, wetlands, fisheries, species and coral reefs around the world is closely tied to the lack of value we put on nature, says three-year study.

"Delegates at the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) rejected yesterday a proposal that would have regulated the trade of red and pink coral worldwide. The proposal, offered by the United States and Sweden, would have regulated for the first time red and pink coral, which is used for the jewelry, home decor and homeopathic medicine market."

Officials and experts from across the Asia-Pacific region are meeting in Indonesia to discuss the future of the lucrative live fish industry.

The State and Federal government announced today that they would "pursue other alternative sources of energy, namely gas, to meet Sabah's power supply needs." Proposed for an undeveloped beach on the north-eastern coast of Borneo, the coal plant, according to critics, would have threatened the Coral Triangle, one of the world's most biodiverse marine ecosystems, and Tabin Wildlife Reserve, home to Critically Endangered Sumatran rhinos and Bornean orangutans. Local fishermen feared that discharges from the plant would have imperiled their livelihood.