Rebecca Patton, Chief Conservation Strategies Officer with The
Nature Conservancy The Coral Triangle Initiative started with a
personal call for action on an urgent threat. The precious
marine resources of the Coral Triangle region are being
destroyed by climate change, overfishing, illegal fishing,
unsustainable coastal development and pollution. This grim
challenge led Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to
reach out to the key people and groups that could make a
difference. Backed by Nature Conservancy experts, President
Yudhoyono issued a formal letter in 2006 to the COP-8 Convention
on Biodiversity, highlighting the critical importance of the
Coral Triangle. The letter also signaled President Yudhoyono's
intention to accelerate its protection in collaboration with the
other Coral Triangle governments. In August 2007, he wrote to
seven other regional and world leaders proposing the Coral
Triangle Initiative (CTI) on Coral Reefs, Fisheries, and Food
Security, aiming to bring together the six Cora