IT?S a project that is kicking off with little fanfare, no press conference, and no grand launch.

But it will take the award-winning husband-and-wife wildlife photographic team of Jurgen Freund and Stella Chiu-Freund on a milestone year-and-a-half-long journey across the Coral Triangle. This area, the earth?s biggest in terms of ocean biodiversity, covers some 6 million square kilometers of land and sea, contains 75 percent of the world?s coral species and 40 percent of the world?s reef fish, generates $12 million a year in tourism revenues, and sustains some 120 million people from six countries in the Indo-Pacific.

It?s the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Coral Triangle Initiative Photographic Expedition, and it?s beginning here in the Philippines, at the Unesco World Heritage Site that is Palawan?s Tubbataha Natural Marine Park in the Sulu Sea.

The Freunds ? Jurgen is originally from Dortmund, Germany; Stella was born and raised in the Philippines, where they met and married before they moved to Cairns, Australia ? are temporarily relocating to the region on assignment from WWF-International to document the Coral Triangle, its riches, and the problems it is facing.

?Utter madness?

First on the agenda for the couple, who arrived on April 6, is a week on board the dive boat Stella Maris from Puerto Princesa, Palawan, beginning April 10 to photograph Tubbataha underwater, as well as the rangers who guard this national treasure for the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park.

Also on the shooting schedule are other areas in Palawan and the whale sharks of Donsol, Sorsogon, before they fly to Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands over the next several months.

?Our itinerary is utter madness,? Stella told this reporter. ?This is an incredible opportunity. To be able to visit and photograph places in Southeast Asia and the Pacific in the center of marine and cultural biodiversity and see the WWF staff at work in the most interesting parts of the Coral Triangle is a photographer?s and an anthropologist?s dream.?

Marine wilderness

The Coral Triangle, singled out by WWF as a critical center for marine biodiversity, has also become one of the world?s greatest economic pillars because of its seemingly endless marine resources.

But problems like climate change, speedy economic and population growth, poor marine management, poverty, high market demand, and brazen disregard for the conservation of rare as well as subsistence species are endangering not just the area and the wildlife but also the lives of the people it supports, including 2.25 million fishermen, reports the WWF on its website.

According to Dr. Lida Pet Soede, head of the WWF?s Coral Triangle Program, the area is ?one of the planet?s last remaining true marine wildernesses, at par with the Amazon Rainforest or the Congo Basin in terms of its importance to life on earth.?

?It takes in the waters of six countries in the Asia Pacific, from Indonesia and the Philippines to the Pacific, where tropical light, warm temperatures, and oceanic currents combine to create remarkable underwater environments found nowhere else on the planet,? Pet Soede said.

Seconded WWF-Philippines CEO Lory Tan: ?We live on a water planet. The future of our world, and its ability to sustain life, hinges to a great extent on the continued health and productivity of the Coral Triangle, the nursery of the seas. Tubbataha Reef is the only Unesco World Heritage Site in Southeast Asian seas, and it is arguably one of the world?s most productive coral reefs on record.?

Generosity

Local authorities have been quick to back the project.

?We have not yet started our expedition, and the generosity of spirit is already overflowing,? Stella said.

?We recognize that we are in the midst of economic difficulties, but this is a very interesting time to capture and preserve in pictures,? she said.

Palawan Governor Joel T. Reyes said the WWF project ?for the conservation and preservation of the Coral Triangle requires the tremendous support of all sectors.?

?Tubbataha?s inclusion in the Coral Triangle heightens the importance and significance of this World Heritage Site in the sustenance of the food requirements both for man and marine creatures, not only in the Philippines but also for the rest of the world,? said Reyes, who also chairs the Palawan Council on Sustainable Development.