Australia’s plans to protect the Great Barrier Reef are inadequate, shortsighted and will not prevent its decline, the country’s pre-eminent grouping of natural scientists said yesterday.
The draft plan, released for consultation last month, was supposed to allay concerns by the UN about the reef’s health after UNESCO threatened to put it on the World Heritage “in danger” list.
Australian Minister of the Environment Greg Hunt has said the proposal reflects an effort to balance the priorities of protecting the reef, which is teeming with marine life, and long-term sustainable development.
However, the Australian Academy of Science warned that the plan ignored the impact of climate change and failed to address problems with poor water quality, coastal development and fishing.
“The science is clear, the reef is degraded and its condition is worsening. This is a plan that won’t restore the reef, it won’t even maintain it in its already diminished state,” academy fellow Terry Hughes said.
“The plan also seems overly focused on the short-term task of addressing UNESCO’s concerns about the reef’s World Heritage listing, rather than the longer-term challenges of restoring the values of the reef,” he added.
Hughes said while the plan identified targets for reducing harmful agricultural runoff, any improvements would likely be lost in the unprecedented amount of dredging for coal ports and the Queensland state government’s plans to double agricultural production by 2040.
The survival of the reef depended on a reduction in pollution from runoff and dredging, less fishing and a decrease in carbon emissions from fossil fuels, he said.
A spokesman for Hunt said the “Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan” states the government’s vision to improve the health of the reef over successive decades.
The draft, prepared by the Australian and Queensland governments, calls for greater coordination between authorities in relation to the reef, a proposal welcomed by environmentalists.
It also urges a 10-year ban on dredging to develop new ports or to expand existing ones both inside and next to the World Heritage site — apart from in priority port development areas.
It bans future port developments in the Fitzroy Delta, Keppel Bay and North Curtis Island near Rockhampton — areas of the reef described by environmentalists as key incubators of marine life.
However, environmentalists have criticized the draft as not setting high enough targets for cutting agricultural pollution or providing the billions of dollars required to restore the health of the reef.
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