- A new study in Bali found that coral reefs continue to decline at one of the island’s major tourism hubs, despite multiple efforts to rehabilitate them.
- Reef restoration initiatives often take place without first addressing the underlying drivers of coral decline such as sediment runoff and wastewater discharge, the study found.
- The study points to uncoordinated governance systems that result in overlapping responsibilities, slow and bureaucratic decision-making and wasted resources as driving the problems.
- The researchers recommend a more coherent and collaborative approach to reef protection, and underscore the paradoxical role of tourism: While it exacerbates threats to reefs, it also offers a viable way of promoting, implementing and funding potential solutions.
Sanur is where tourism took off in Bali. A coastal town overlooking the Lombok Strait where the Pacific Ocean flows into the Indian Ocean, artists and travelers began frequenting its shores in the 1920s. Today, the local economy still depends on income from visitors seeking its sun-kissed sands and cozy waters that hold the promise of encounters with all manner of tropical marine life.
But new research indicates all is not well with Sanur’s precious marine ecosystems. Its coral reefs are steadily degrading, despite multiple efforts to rehabilitate them by planting coral fragments or building artificial reefs.
The recent study, published in Ocean & Coastal Management, found reef restoration initiatives in Sanur often take place without first addressing the primary drivers of coral decline, such as sediment runoff and wastewater discharge.
“People see the visible impact on the coral reef, so they feel it’s urgent to do something about it there,” study lead author Min Chung, a master’s student at the University of Tokyo, told Mongabay in an interview. “But in reality, and efficiency wise, it’s obviously more effective to address the more fundamental drivers [of coral loss].”
By analyzing reef health data and interviews with 18 stakeholders who have influence over the use and management of Sanur’s reefs, Chung and her colleagues identified complex and competing interests between many different groups, from government agencies, local authorities and community organizations to academics, fishers and tourism operators.
“There are differing views on how to preserve coral reefs and the role tourism should play in the area,” Chung said, noting stakeholders variously view reefs as tourism attractions, fishing grounds, coastal protection and sources of blue carbon.
According to the study, the crowded governance environment results in overlapping responsibilities and poor coordination, leading to duplication of efforts, wasted resources and potential solutions repeatedly stalling amid slow and bureaucratic decision-making. In other words, it transforms what could be collective action and energy into “decision paralysis,” the study says.
Meanwhile, Sanur’s reefs continue to degrade. The study’s ecological analyses revealed local reefs have reached a “moderately to severely degraded” state. What were once extensive branching reefs have transformed into “rubble fields” overgrown with algae, with nearshore snorkeling sites faring worse than less-visited areas further offshore.
Another major challenge identified in the study is striking the balance between tourism and conservation.
On one hand, interviewees linked tourism with egregious impacts on coral reefs, such as swimmers breaking corals, tour boats anchoring on reefs, and tourism facilities pumping wastewater into coastal waters. This aligns with earlier research in Bali that found a correlation between increased tourism and deterioration of coastal ecosystems, reporting a 38% coral cover decline between 2010 and 2023 in tourism hubs.
However, Sanur’s local economy depends on tourism income, and most interviewees reported that the industry offers a viable way of promoting, implementing and funding potential reef solutions. Its overall impact though, depends largely on governance, effective management and ensuring that tourism revenues are reinvested into protecting reefs.
What can be done to help Sanur’s reefs?
To improve outcomes for Sanur’s reefs, Chung said reef restoration and beach cleanups have an important role to play. However, they should be backed up by coherent decision-making and integrated approaches that prioritize what the reef actually needs to recover. This includes improved wastewater treatment, better marine spatial planning, stronger regulation of boating and anchoring, and clear codes of conduct.
Such an integrated approach would “help shift decision-making from evaluating individual projects toward assessing their contribution to system-level change,” the study says.
Sanur is not alone in facing these issues. Many tourism hotspots face similar pressures. According to a 2022 review of more than 500 coral reef restoration projects in Indonesia over the past three decades, many initiatives floundered due to inadequate governance and long-term monitoring.
Zach Boakes, co-founder and reef scientist at North Bali Reef Conservation who wasn’t involved in the study, said the findings provide a thorough framework of how threats and management actions interact. The study also does a good job of highlighting the paradoxical role of tourism in reef conservation, he said.
“Tourism represents both one of the greatest pressures on Bali’s reefs and one of its greatest opportunities,” Boakes told Mongabay in an email. “In fact, tourism has been a major reason why Bali has become one of the global hubs for coral reef restoration, as it attracts substantial financial support from dive operators, resorts, NGOs and international visitors. The challenge is ensuring that tourism contributes more to long-term conservation than to degradation.”
Boakes said tourism businesses should be viewed as partners in conservation, rather than sources of problems. “Many [operators] already have a vested interest in maintaining healthy reefs because their livelihoods depend upon them,” he said.
Having led earlier research identifying similar governance shortcomings across initiatives in Bali, Boakes said improved coordination among reef stakeholders would certainly help improve outcomes for reef health in Sanur. However, multiple other challenges also need to be addressed, he said, not least the availability of conservation funding.
According to Boakes, highly visible feel-good solutions like coral restoration typically attract more attention and support from funders than less visible measures like wastewater treatment, pollution control and habitat protection, despite delivering much greater long-term ecological benefits.
“We see this quite frequently, not only in Bali but internationally,” he said. “Planting corals provides an immediate and tangible conservation action, which makes it attractive for tourism operators, donors and the general public. However, restoration should not be viewed as a substitute for addressing the underlying causes of reef decline.”
Another important question is how conservation programs evaluate whether their interventions are genuinely successful over the long term. This is where measures of reef resilience, such as restoring a diverse mix of coral species, come into play, Boakes said. He urged initiatives to include indicators of ecosystem health in monitoring programs, including measures of herbivory, carbonate production, bioerosion and nutrient cycling.
Scientific consensus is building around this point. Reef scientists, conservationists and community leaders who recently convened for the 16th International Coral Reefs Symposium in New Zealand agreed to prioritize managing reefs for resilience, not simply coral cover. They warned, however, that even with effective reef protection programs in place, climate change remains the biggest threat to coral reefs around the world.
“If problems such as poor water quality, untreated wastewater, coastal development and climate change continue, restoration risks becoming a short-term band-aid rather than a long-term solution,” Boakes said. “Successful restoration ultimately depends on improving the environmental conditions that allow reefs to persist naturally.”
Banner image: Plastic litter floats over a coral reef off the coast of Bali. Image by Naja Bertolt Jensen/Ocean Image Bank.
Carolyn Cowan is a staff writer for Mongabay. Her reporting focuses on wildlife, ecology, and communities responding to environmental challenges across Southeast Asia.
Citations:
Chung, M., Banzragch, B., … Gasparatos, A. (2026). Understanding coral reef change in urbanized and tourism-intensive seascapes: Insights from Sanur, Bali. Ocean & Coastal Management, 279, 108252. doi:10.2139/ssrn.6335974
Prihadi, D. J., Costa, T., … Koleva, G. (2025). Tourism development and coastal ecosystem degradation in southern Bali. Journal of Multidisciplinary Sustainability Asean, 2(4), 200-211. doi:10.70177/ijmsa.v2i4.2681
Razak, T. B., Boström-Einarsson, L., Alisa, C. A., Vida, R. T., … Lamont, T. A. (2022). Coral reef restoration in Indonesia: A review of policies and projects. Marine Policy, 137, 104940. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104940
Boakes, Z., Hall, A. E., Ampou, E. E., Jones, G. C., Suryaputra, I. G., Mahyuni, L. P., … Stafford, R. (2022). Coral reef conservation in Bali in light of international best practice, a literature review. Journal for Nature Conservation, 67, 126190. doi:10.1016/j.jnc.2022.126190
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Cite this article
Carolyn Cowan (2026). Tourism has potential to slow coral decline at Bali travel hotspot: Study. Mongabay Conservation news. DOI: https://doi.org/10.66709/news-330326
