Great Barrier Reef Is Not ‘in Danger’

Good follow up to yesterday's post on threats to Everest.  We'll follow up with the World Heritage Center for a radio show.  Good to see so many experts and countries coming together to protect this delicate, wonderful resource.

Great Barrier Reef Is Not ‘in Danger’ but Needs Care, U.N. Experts Say

By MICHELLE INNIS

SYDNEY, Australia — Despite threats to the Great Barrier Reef from climate change and human activity, United Nations conservation experts stopped short of recommending on Friday that the reef, a World Heritage site, be classified as “in danger.”

Even so, the overall outlook for the reef remains poor, and Australia should improve its management of it, the World Heritage Center and the International Union for Conservation of Nature said in their report. The document cited climate change, water pollution and the impact of coastal development as major threats.

In particular, scientists and conservationists have sharply criticized plans to expand the Abbot Point coal-loading port in Queensland, which would involve the dumping of dredge spoils in waters near the reef, which includes 1,050 islands and stretches along almost the entire eastern coast of Queensland.

The experts’ recommendation, published in Paris, now goes to a vote by the World Heritage Committee, which includes representatives of 21 countries and is scheduled to meet next month in Bonn, Germany.

Greg Hunt, the Australian environment minister, said Friday the government was committed to a 35-year plan to restore the reef to good health, a fact noted in the recommendation.

“We have listened intently and responded directly to the concerns from the Australian community, the World Heritage Committee and their technical advisers,” Mr. Hunt said in a statement. He said the national government and Queensland should invest about $1.5 billion in the reef over the next decade.

But conservationists have criticized the government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott for supporting the expansion of the port and the Galilee Basin coal mines that use it.

Under pressure from environmentalists, Mr. Hunt has said the government will permanently ban the dumping of dredge spoils from new port projects in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. But the ban would not cover dredging to maintain the depth of existing shipping channels and ports, which could still dump more than a million tons of sludge a year in reef waters, according to Jon C. Day, who was a director at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority from 1998 to 2014.

WWF-Australia, an environmental advocacy group, said in a statement that the United Nations was placing Australia on probation. “The draft decision acknowledges progress, but keeps the pressure on the Australian government to turn their commitments into real actions and results, or find themselves having to explain to the World Heritage Committee in 2017 why they’ve failed to meet their commitments,” the statement said. The group said the government had not allocated enough money to the reef protection plan.