This report of 220 pages written by nearly 90 authors clearly presents the summation of an enormous amount of data and information on 19 of the 23 nations and states of the Pacific and outlines both the problems and stresses on these thousands of reefs, and the potential that these reefs will prove to be the reservoir of coral reefs for the world in the immediate future with the largest threat being global climate change. Although the following chapters illustrate that coral reefs in the wider Pacific are facing many threats and have shown significant losses of coral reef structure, this report clearly demonstrates that Pacific reefs without much doubt contain the best coral reefs systems in the world and should remain in that position for the immediate decades to come.
