Barrier Reef in danger? The fight’s on again as Tanya Plibersek prepares to lobby UN
Australia faces its second fight in less than two years to prevent the Great Barrier Reef being declared ‘in danger’ by the UN.
Australia faces its second fight in less than two years to prevent the Great Barrier Reef from being declared “in danger” by the UN, as Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek prepares to lobby her global counterparts against the move and scientists say the reef is improving.
The expert panel of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee has released a report recommending the reef be placed on a list of World Heritage sites in danger as it faces risk from climate change and degrading water quality from agricultural run-off.
Farmers within the Great Barrier Reef catchment area have warned they will lobby hard against any extra regulations after the report recommended a reduction in run-off from banana and sugarcane farming.
Ms Plibersek faces a battle to stave off a formal ruling when the report is considered at the meeting of the World Heritage Committee in mid-2023. Having recently met with UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulay in Lisbon, she will speak with her international counterparts at global environmental talks in Montreal next month.
The Australian understands Ms Plibersek is prepared to lobby hard if a formal proposal to place the reef “in danger” is made.
Ms Plibersek and her Queensland counterpart, Meaghan Scanlon, sought to distance themselves from the report’s findings, arguing they were the result of the former Coalition government’s failure to act on climate change.
“The reason that UNESCO in the past has singled out a place as ‘at risk’ is because they wanted to see greater government investment or greater government action – and since the change of government, both of those things have happened,” she said.
“We’ll clearly make the point to UNESCO that there is no need to single the Great Barrier Reef out in this way.”
Former Coalition environment minister Sussan Ley only last year successfully fended off an attempt downgrade the health status of the reef. She flew to Europe last July to directly lobby World Heritage Council members.
Steve Edmondson, a reef tour operator in Port Douglas, said the UN-backed report relied on old information gathered during a monitoring mission in March while the reef was going through a mass coral bleaching event.
“I don’t think it considers that there are a lot of positive things that have happened in the past year,” he said. “The reef is in excellent condition at the moment and that’s what our guests are experiencing every day.
“It’s actually doing better than it has done for a very, very long time. It is fragile, but I do feel encouraged by the resilience of the Great Barrier Reef.”
An August report from the commonwealth’s chief independent marine science agency found the northern and central parts of the reef have the highest amounts of coral for 36 years, despite another bleaching episode earlier this year.
The Australian Institute of Marine Science assessment found coral cover had dropped slightly in the southern part of the reef due to a continued outbreak of crown of thorns starfish.
Jodie Rummer, a marine biologist at James Cook University, said coral recovery was positive but could quickly be undone by marine heatwaves, and the UNESCO report was the “wakeup call Australia needed”.
“We cannot afford to have another mass bleaching event this season, that would make seven and that’s just reducing the time of recovery between these events,” she said,
“The ecosystem cannot handle it and it cannot recover fast enough to sustain the populations and the health that the ecosystem needs to thrive.”
University of Queensland reef expert Peter Mumby said there were “pluses and minuses” in the report, but agreed with its recommendations.
“My worry is that when something is listed as “in danger”, it can create a sense of futility,” he said.
“There is this global myth that the Great Barrier Reef is dead, it is not dead. So this kind of publicity has a global effect on how people perceive the reef which I do not think is fair.”
Professor Mumby said although the report was “a little out of date” given the official visit to monitor the reef happened in March, it was correct and sensible. “There is an awful lot of work that needs to be done to shepherd this reef into a safer future and listing it as ‘in danger’ helps, then fair enough,” he said.
“The reef still has the capacity to show recovery, if given some breathing space. However, the real focus on why we need to address the climate change problem is that those windows of recovery are becoming increasingly scarce.”
Queensland-based organisation AgForce warned it would lobby heavily against any moves to regulate farmers within the Great Barrier Reef catchment area after the report recommended a reduction in run-off from banana and sugarcane farming.
“It’s disappointing to see that reef management has been hijacked yet again by climate change activists seeking to vilify farmers,” AgForce chief executive Michael Guerin said.
“No one understands the importance of protecting the reef better than farmers in reef catchments. The reality of the situation is the reef is in good condition and showing resilience.”
Opposition environment spokesman Jonno Duniam accused Labor of politicising the reef and defended the former Coalition’s track record on conservation funding. “The reality is that the Coalition delivered record conservation funding and oversaw unprecedented environmental outcomes across the reef – including the achievement of its highest level of coral cover in recorded history.”
Additional reporting: Charlie Peel
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