Overview
- Researchers presented the study in Mombasa on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, reporting nearly 166,000 square kilometres of reefs in 71 countries that appear able to survive or recover from warming.
- The map was built from more than 45,000 field surveys and decades of ocean and climate records (1960–2025) and projects reef outcomes to 2050 under an expected ~2.1°C global warming scenario.
- Roughly 60% of the identified resilient area is concentrated in Australia, the Bahamas, Cuba, Indonesia and the Philippines, which creates clear geographic priorities for conservation action.
- Only about 28% of those resilient reefs fall inside protected or conserved areas, prompting calls to direct limited funding and policy tools such as national '30 by 30' planning to those sites.
- Authors warn the analysis has limits—monitoring is uneven, historical patterns may miss novel future states, and a likely super El Niño increases urgency for targeted protection and monitoring.