CIBJO coral report ahead of Jaipur congress states jewellery-grade coral is not endangered

The World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO) has published a new report on coral in the jewellery industry ahead of its 2023 CIBJO Congress in Jaipur this October to state that jewellery-grade coral is not endangered.

CIBJO’s Coral Commission’s new report is designed to bridge the knowledge gap among consumers and even industry players which results in conflating precious coral species with other varieties such as reef corals affected by global warming and ocean acidification, CIBJO announced on Facebook. The report stresses the need for accurate coral terminology as listed in the CIBJO Coral Blue Book. The source classifies coral used for jewellery as Corallium, Pleurocorallium, and Hemicorallium, which are all part of the Corallidae family.
 
“Effective communication of these trade definitions is paramount, given the widespread misconception among industry professionals and consumers alike that jewellery-grade corals originate from colonies situated in shallow waters, such as the Great Barrier Reef,” said CIBJO Coral Commission head Vincenzo Liverino, the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council reported on its website. “The corals defined as precious by CIBJO inhabit entirely distinct ecosystems, thriving in much deeper and colder waters.”

The Coral Commission report was the ninth pre-congress Special Report released ahead of the CIBJO Congress in Jaipur which will launch on October 3. The Coral Commission is keen to make sure that governments do not pass laws banning or restricting coral trade for the jewellery industry, as happened in Thailand following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan which led to a tsunami which damaged several local coral reefs. 
 
“The Coral Commission at CIBJO has been actively engaging with authorities, urging them to acknowledge that the coral species affected by this natural disaster are not the ones coveted for gemstone purposes in the jewellery manufacturing sector, which represents a robust industry in Thailand,” said Liverino. “We have underscored that precious corals do not inhabit the same ecosystem as those impacted by the tsunami and, as affirmed by CITES [Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora], are not deemed endangered species.”