The view from below: Why coral reefs are an important part of sustainability

“If you get a chance to go diving, go snorkelling and experience [the wonder of the ocean]. It's really an amazing feeling.

“It's a 360-degree sensory experience. And when you see the life there, you will want to do something to protect it,” says National Parks Board (NParks)’s Group Director Karenne Tun, who has been studying coral reefs for over 30 years.

Speaking with GovInsider, Tun shares more about the role of coral reefs in fighting climate change and what Singapore is doing to protect them.

Stressing on the importance of corals, she explains that popular local fish, like grouper and snapper, would be gone if corals disappeared from the waters where these fish roam.

According to Tun, coral reefs play an irreplaceable role in both food security and coastal defence by preventing erosion of the shoreline.

As the reefs become increasingly endangered, it is necessary to look for ways to both mitigate the effects of climate change and strive to protect the corals that remain, Tun adds.

Corals and coral restoration

Last year, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coral Reef Watch confirmed that the world is in the midst of its fourth global coral bleaching event.

Coral bleaching refers to the phenomenon which causes corals to expel the colourful algae living on them and turn completely white due to environmental stress such as high-water temperature.

The colourful algae, zooxanthellae, is what provides corals with essential nutrients and gives them its colour - if the environmental change is too extreme, the coral will eventually die.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel, notes Tun.

“We found that within our region (in Southeast Asia), there was a decline during the bleaching events, but there is an upward trend in some areas.

“And to me, that gives hope… In terms of coral reefs, I think there’s a lot more that we still need to know,” says Tun.

The 100K Corals Initiative: the bigger picture

This is where NParks’ 100k Corals Initiative by NParks comes in, says Tun.

Launched in December 2024, the initiative aims to scale existing coral restoration efforts and plant 100,000 corals in Singapore’s waters. To date, it is the most extensive coral restoration effort in Singapore.

“The easiest way to measure success is to look at how many are planted, how many survive, and how fast they grow. These are your normal metrics, when you're talking about monitoring to look at how they change over time,” says Tun.

However, more than simply looking at the tangible, measurable outcome of coral restoration projects, such as the 100k Corals Initiative, Tun shares it is equally, if not more important to understand why conservation is being done, and why so much effort is put into it.

Tun believes the project can find most success through extensive community engagement.

According to her, NParks has been collaborating with the World Wide Fund for Nature Singapore (WWF) to enhance youth engagement and Friends of Marine Park to recruit volunteers to assist with monitoring work.

Climate challenges

Climate change is the biggest threat to coral conservation, says Tun.

Many coral reefs, and particularly shallow water tropical corals, are surviving precariously  close to their bleaching thresholds – it takes very little to tip the balance, shares Tun.

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Tech and research for resilience

Tun shares that NParks is leveraging on technology to overcome climate change and operational challenges to ensure as many corals survive as possible.

Among its initiatives, NParks has been working with Delta to monitor water quality and manage water temperature in land-based aquaculture tanks to ensure optimal conditions for coral growth.

Tun shares that research is being conducted to identify, and isolate microbial communities found on the surface of corals to help corals build resilience to environmental changes such as change in sea surface temperature.

Tun shares that if, and when this research comes to fruition, one day it would be possible to cultivate corals which are “already more resilient” to rising sea temperatures.

“It’s like building super corals. You build in the resilience before you leave them out,” she continues.

The future of the reef

According to Tun, two Ocean conferences were held in Nice, France this month: the One Ocean Congress and the United Nations Ocean Conference. Notably, the One Ocean Congress saw a call to action to restore shallow water coral reefs around the world.

She stressed that is exactly what Singapore is doing today.

By continuing to work in its current capacity of research, working with other research institutions, and partnering with entities like WWF and other NGOs, Tun says that she can see NParks’ effort of coral restoration being magnified in Singapore.

“Singapore is already on that road to meeting a lot of what the scientists are calling a global community to do. And with partners that we are working with, I think we can be a nation that can support some of our partners around the region to implement some of the outcomes that we get from the research that we do,” continues Tun.

“Biodiversity is really connected within our region. And biodiversity is not picky, right? They will settle down and live in a place, as long as the conditions suitable for them.

“So our job is to make sure that we provide a suitable place for them. You build it right, make sure that the environment is good, they will come… and then they will come back naturally,” she concludes.