Australia yesterday hailed a UN decision to keep the Great Barrier Reef off its endangered list as “tremendous,” but activists warned more must be done to improve the marine park’s health.
The world’s biggest coral reef ecosystem, which has had World Heritage Site status since 1981, has been under increasing threat from climate change, farming runoff, development and the coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish.
“This is a tremendous decision,” Australian Minister for the Environment Greg Hunt told the Australian Broadcasting Corp from Bonn, Germany, where UNESCO made its decision late on Wednesday, adding that Canberra had “clearly heard the concerns of the World Heritage Committee.”
Ahead of the decision, UNESCO commended Australia’s recent efforts on working to ban the dumping of dredge spoil in the marine park, to limit port development and improve water quality.
“What we have got now is unanimous and overwhelming support for the reef, support for what Australia’s doing,” Hunt said.
He added that more than A$2 billion (US$1.53 billion) had been committed to protect the reef over the next decade.
The decision by UNESCO will see the reef — a major tourist attraction off the Queensland coast — remain under surveillance, but not listed as endangered.
Putting it on the “in danger” list would have been a huge embarrassment for Australia with the World Heritage Committee able to develop and adopt a program for corrective measures.
Australia is now required to report back to the UN on its progress on implementing its “Reef 2050” plan by Dec. 1 next year. The plan outlines the government’s vision on continuing to improve the health of the reef over successive decades.
“We know that the real work starts now,” said Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, who traveled with Hunt to the meeting.
“We have a strong suite of plans and commitments and they all need to be implemented to ensure that we can come back to... report positively,” he said.
Trad praised the efforts of civil society groups and environmental activists in calling attention to the reef’s condition, which was described as “poor” in a government report in August last year.
Conservation group WWF said the UN announcement was a “powerful decision that places Australia on probation over the health of the Great Barrier Reef.”
“The [World Heritage] committee must continue to play this crucial role holding the Australian and Queensland governments to account and ensuring that promises are translated into real action and improvements in the health of the reef,” WWF-Australia chief executive Dermot O’Gorman said.
Greenpeace warned that the reef would not be fully protected unless the country drops all expansion plans for coal and port developments in the area.
“Until the plans for the massive coal mine and port expansion are dropped, it’s impossible to take Australia’s claims that they are protecting the reef seriously,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific’s political adviser Jess Panegyres said.
“The government’s Reef 2050 plan ... has effectively carved out a space for massive coal mines and port expansion that will create a highway for coal ships straight through the reef,” he said.
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