Blue Finance used eDNA to assess coral reef biodiversity in and around the Puerto Galera Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Philippines. The results revealed exceptionally high fish diversity. They give Blue Finance a baseline for tracking conservation outcomes against key performance indicators.

Blue Finance works with governments to co-manage a global network of MPAs, restoring degraded marine habitats and improving livelihoods. At Puerto Galera, it aims to help coral and fish communities recover from damage caused by unsustainable fishing and physical disturbance.

Monitoring recovery is key to knowing whether management is working. However, conventional diver surveys of fish communities often miss cryptic species and take a lot of resources to run at scale. Blue Finance needed a more complete view of biodiversity to assess how effective the MPA is and to track ecosystem recovery over time.

In 2022, Blue Finance used NatureMetrics’ eDNA service to sample both within the Puerto Galera MPA and in surrounding areas with less protection. The analysis covered the full fish community across both coral reef and mangrove environments. The results were made available through the Nature Intelligence Platform to support ongoing performance tracking.

The analysis detected over 500 fish taxa, revealing exceptionally high species diversity.

• Species richness was greater in and around the reef MPA than in the mangrove conservation area.
• Mangrove and coral reef environments supported clearly distinct fish communities.
• Key reef specialist families were identified, giving a detailed picture of community composition across the site. These were:
  • Scaridae (parrotfishes)
  • Acanthuridae (tangs, surgeonfishes and unicornfishes)
  • Pomacentridae (damselfishes and clownfishes)

The eDNA data gives Blue Finance a robust baseline of fish diversity for tracking the ecosystem’s recovery over time.

Through the Nature Intelligence Platform, Blue Finance can track several performance indicators on reef health and fish populations. It can use these to validate its conservation outcomes to donors, including the Global Fund for Coral Reefs.

Ongoing eDNA monitoring will strengthen Blue Finance’s evidence-based management of the site and support long-term adaptive decision-making.