A New Open-Access Hub to Strengthen Ocean Stewardship Across the Coral Triangle

Six nations, one of the planet’s richest marine regions, and a single free platform built to put conservation knowledge in everyone’s hands.

Bali, Indonesia. On 9 June 2026, marking both World Ocean Day and Coral Triangle Day, partners across the region launched the CTI-CFF Capacity Building Repository, a free, open-access platform that connects people, knowledge, and opportunities to protect one of the world’s most important seas.

The repository was initiated by the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF), together with the Coral Triangle Center (CTC), the WWF Coral Triangle Programme, and the SOMACORE Programme. It calls on governments, researchers, community leaders, and conservation practitioners to share what works, and to find solutions others have already tested.

A region worth the effort

The stakes are hard to overstate. Stretching across the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste, the Coral Triangle is recognised as the global centre of marine biodiversity. It is home to more than 600 coral species and over 2,000 reef fish species (roughly 76 percent of the world’s known corals), and it supports the food, livelihoods, and coastal protection of more than 130 million people, according to WWF. Yet climate change, overfishing, pollution, and unsustainable resource use continue to mount.

Much of the knowledge needed to respond already exists; the problem is that it has been scattered across institutions, organisations, and borders. The new platform is designed to pull it into one place.

One address for the region’s know-how

Accessible at coraltrianglelearning.org, the repository is an open-access knowledge hub of curated best practices, case studies, guidance documents, and outreach materials, all aligned with the CTI-CFF Regional Plan of Action (RPOA) 2.0. More than a digital library, it is built to support learning, collaboration, and practical skill-building for marine conservation and sustainable coastal livelihoods.

What’s inside

• Resource Library: curated knowledge products, case studies, and best practices reviewed by CTI-CFF and partners.
• E-Learning Portal: self-paced courses, videos, and downloadable materials, including resources in several regional languages.
• Directory of Expert Practitioners: a searchable database of marine and coastal specialists across the region.
• Directory of Capacity Building Providers: organisations offering training and professional development.
• Learning Networks Directory: a gateway to communities of practice such as the MPA Managers Network and the Women Leaders Forum.
• Learning & Funding Opportunities: an updated listing of scholarships, grants, fellowships, and training programmes.

The platform is also meant to draw the six countries closer together, giving practitioners, communities, and decision-makers shared access to the same tools. Contributors so far include CTC, IUCN, WWF, the Philippines’ Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, The Nature Conservancy, Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara, Konservasi Indonesia, and the Coral Reef Alliance, alongside a network of regional specialists.

Backed by regional cooperation

The launch is part of broader work by the CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat and its partners to build marine and coastal resilience through regional cooperation. The SOMACORE Programme is supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety through the International Climate Initiative (IKI).

By making knowledge easier to find and connecting practitioners across borders, the repository aims to empower a new generation of ocean stewards, and to speed up the collective action needed to safeguard one of the planet’s most valuable marine ecosystems.

Explore the repository: coraltrianglelearning.org

Adapted from CTI-CFF and partner materials. Images courtesy of CTI-CFF. SEVENSEAS Media thanks the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF), the Coral Triangle Center, the WWF Coral Triangle Programme, and the SOMACORE Programme for sharing news of the launch.