• World
  • Jun 24

Great Barrier Reef in danger, says UN committee’s draft report

A United Nations body is recommending that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef be included on a list of world heritage in danger, according to a draft report.

The move has been heavily criticised by the Australian government.  

The World Heritage Committee, convened under UNESCO, said Australia  has not done enough to protect the world’s largest coral reef system from the impacts of climate change.

World Heritage Committee

• The World Heritage Committee consists of representatives from 21 of the States Parties to the Convention elected by their General Assembly.

• Its next meeting will be held virtually from China in July.

• The Committee is responsible for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund and allocates financial assistance upon requests from States Parties. 

• It has the final say on whether a property is inscribed on the World Heritage List. 

• It examines reports on the state of conservation of inscribed properties and asks States Parties to take action when properties are not being properly managed. 

• It also decides on the inscription or deletion of properties on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Key points of the report:

• Despite commitments and progress under a long-term sustainability plan known as Reef 2050, the Great Barrier Reef continues to deteriorate, according to the report, and has suffered significant coral bleaching over the past five years.

• A number of factors have negatively affected the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property since 2015, including mass coral bleaching events in 2016 and 2017.

• An assessment of progress towards achieving the targets of the Reef 2050 Plan notes that while some of them are being met, significant improvements will be required to meet other targets, including those for biodiversity and water quality.

Australia opposes the move

• Australia has said that it will challenge the proposed recommendation.

• Any downgrade of the reef’s World Heritage status could reduce tourism revenue that the natural wonder generates for Australia because fewer tourists would be attracted to a degraded environment and dead coral.

• Australia has for years been battling to keep the Great Barrier Reef, a major tourist attraction that supports thousands of jobs, off the “in danger” list.

The Great Barrier Reef

• The Great Barrier Reef is a network of almost 3,000 coral reefs and a diverse array of non-reef habitats stretching 2,300 km along the east coast of Queensland. 

• The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area covers an area of 348,000 square kilometres and has connections to the Torres Strait north of Cape York, the Coral Sea and the Great Sandy Strait, adjacent to Fraser Island in the south.

• It is one of the best known and most complex natural systems on Earth, developed over millions of years, and contains a unique range of ecological communities, habitats and species.

• The Reef is an international icon and valued as Australia’s most acclaimed natural asset for its unique biodiversity, cultural significance and immense ecological scale.

• The Reef is critical to the tourism industry and the millions of coastal residents. This immense ecosystem supports an estimated 64,000 jobs and generates an annual income of $6.4 billion to the Australian economy. Most of this is from tourism, with the Reef attracting more than two million visitors each year from across the globe. 

• It was placed on the World Heritage List in 1981.

• The Reef meets all four of the UNESCO natural criteria for World Heritage listing. It is recognised for its natural beauty and natural phenomena, ecological and biological processes, habitats for conservation of biodiversity and for containing major stages of the Earth’s evolutionary history.

Coral reef deterioration

• The Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report 2019 found the condition of many of the Reef’s natural values (including species, habitats and ecosystem processes) had deteriorated since 2014. 

• It found the size of the Reef is becoming a less effective buffer to broadscale and cumulative threats and concluded that the future long-term outlook for the Reef’s ecosystem had deteriorated from poor to very poor.  

Main threats to the Reef:

• Increasing temperatures are threatening most species and habitats in the Reef ecosystem.

• Reef-dependent industries are affected when poor water quality degrades ecosystems.

• The greatest water quality risks to the Reef and its coastal ecosystems are land-derived inputs from nutrients, fine sediments and pesticides.

• Overfishing of particular species and illegal fishing can impact food chains and ecosystem processes. 

• Marine debris can be eaten by wildlife or entangle them, impacting their health and potentially causing death.

• Artificial light pollution from coastal infrastructure and ships can interrupt the navigation ability of marine species and disturb turtle hatchlings.

Australia’s Reef 2050 Plan was released in 2015 and is a key part of the government’s bid to prevent the World Heritage Site being placed in the “in danger” list. The plan is a key component of the Australian government’s response to the recommendations of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store

Notes