Great Barrier Reef outlook downgraded to critical by UN report

A UN report has downgraded the reef’s prospects, as climate change replaces invasive species as a major threat.

A file picture of the Great Barrier Reef. Picture: AFP

The Great Barrier Reef has been downgraded to “critical” — ­severely threatened and requiring urgent conservation — in a three-year stocktake of World Heritage sites.

The review, undertaken by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which advises UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, concluded climate change has replaced invasive species as the biggest threat to sites around the world.

The reef was downgraded from being at “significant concern”, where it was ranked in 2017, to “critical”.

The reclassification will likely lead to a renewed push from environmental campaigners for the reef to be listed as “in danger” at a meeting in China next year, the first step in having a World Heritage designation revoked.

That rating would be a huge blow for the reef’s tourism industry which is beginning to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, the Australian Marine Conservation Society said.

“Climate change, poor water quality from catchment runoff, impacts from coastal development, impacts of fishing and crown-of-thorns starfish pose the biggest threats to the long-term conservation of the Great Barrier Reef,” the IUCN’s World Heritage Outlook report reads. The organisation said the management of the reef by both the commonwealth and Queensland government had been ­“extensive and innovative”, but noted “concerns remain and overall the threats remain significant”.

Lindsay Simpson, a Whitsundays tourism operator, said the bad publicity was unwelcome but could not be avoided.

Ms Simpson, who has operated snorkelling tours in the region for the past five years, said: “If we get bleaching and another cyclone it will be devastating.”

A spokesman for Environment Minister Sussan Ley said the report reflected the impact of extreme weather events.

“The property assessments also reflect the significant work by the Australian government, and state and territory managers to protect and manage our World Heritage properties”, the spokesman said. “Australia is committed to playing its role in a global ­response to climate change.

“It is investing unprecedented amounts protecting the reef, in bushfire wildlife and habitat recovery and in supporting our World Heritage places.”

Of the 252 natural World Heritage sites, the IUCN rated the outlook of 63 per cent as either “good” or “good with some concerns”, while 30 per cent were of “significant concern” and just 7 per cent were “critical”.

Only Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve had its outlook upgraded from “critical” while Australia’s Gondwana Rainforests and Greater Blue Mountains Area were downgraded from “good with some concerns” to “significant concerns”.

The IUCN last undertook the stocktake in 2017.

“In 2014, the IUCN World Heritage Outlook identified climate change as the most significant potential threat and in 2017 it became the fastest growing threat,” the report reads.

“In 2020, climate change has become the most prevalent current threat.

“Invasive alien species, which was assessed as the most common threat both in 2014 and 2017, follows closely behind climate change as the second most common current threat in 2020.”

A critical status was applied to only a handful of World Heritage properties, including East Rennell in the Solomon Islands, tropical rainforests in Sumatra and the Everglades National Park in Florida.

Half of the sites are found to have “effective” or “highly effective” protection and management, with the sustainability of the sites’ funding being the most common issue rated as a “serious concern”.

The outlook finds that 16 natural World Heritage sites have ­deteriorated since 2017, while only eight have improved.