The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) has launched a call for coral reef monitoring data for the preparation of the next global report; the Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2025.
The GCRMN was established by the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) in 1995 to monitor the condition of the world’s coral reefs. The GCRMN has published an extensive range of global, regional, and thematic reports on coral reef status and trends. The GCRMN collates and presents coral reef data, aggregating from national to regional levels, and then to a global level.
The flagship products of the GCRMN are the “Status of Coral Reefs of the World” reports, supplemented by topical reports developed upon request of the global community and ICRI, and regional reports highlighting the status and trends of coral reefs across the network’s 10 regions. Since 1995, six “Status of Coral Reefs of the World” global reports have been published by the network at large. The sixth edition of the GCRMN “Status of Coral Reefs of the World” report released in 2021, was the first since 2008, and the first based on the quantitative analysis of a global dataset compiled from raw monitoring data contributed by more than 300 members of the network.
Given the urgency to conserve coral reefs and the commitments made by countries to 2030, the GCRMN is calling for coral reef monitoring data contributions for the development of its seventh “Status of Coral Reefs of the World” global report which will be released in 2026.
The report will describe the temporal trends of hard coral and algal cover (ideally at the resolution of macroalgae, turf algae, and coralline algae) at the global level, providing an update on the “Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2020” report.
GCRMN reports are focused on widely collected indicators that represent the status of coral reefs. For the “Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2025” global report, monitoring data on the percentage cover of benthic organisms is being requested
Data can be contributed if associated with a data paper or data repository, stored on MERMAID or ReefCloud, or if your data are stored in Excel or CSV formats. Please note, that your data will not be made publicly available or shared without your prior permission.
A Data Sharing Agreement and Guide for Data Contributors have been developed to support the data contribution process. These can be downloaded from www.gcrmn.net/2025-report and are available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
The GCRMN welcomes all coral reef monitoring data and encourages your collaboration. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Data Collation team, the GCRMN Coordinator, or the ICRI Secretariat, or via the GCRMN Contact Page.
This piece was prepared online by Panuruji Kenta, Publisher, SEVENSEAS Media