Status of corals across the Philippines including endangered coral and coral reef species listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

DOST-PCAARRD supported the nationwide coral reef assessment in 2015, which assessed a total of 206 stations using HCC and allowed the development of (1) standardized protocol for reef monitoring, assessment and taxonomic identification, and (2) new scale for classifying the status of coral reefs developed using HCC and national and regional benchmarks, assessment scales and baselines for future management-oriented surveys.

Live coral cover (LCC) assessment scale of Gomez et al. (1981) and HCC assessment scale of Licuanan (2019) can be found below: