Curb coal, gas to save Great Barrier Reef: UN

A WORLD Heritage mission wants tough new environmental conditions placed on coal and gas port expansion applications.

Great Barrier Reef

A WORLD Heritage mission wants tough new environmental conditions placed on coal and gas port expansion applications, pending the outcome of a strategic review into the combined threat they pose to the Great Barrier Reef.

Developers could be forced to accept new "precautionary" environmental rules or withdraw their applications and resubmit them when the strategic review has been completed in 18 months.

The co-ordinator of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre's marine program, Fanny Douvere, yesterday declared that the Great Barrier Reef, one of the world's most important environmental assets, was "at a crossroads".

She praised Australia's past environmental management of the reef but said the alarm had been raised over expansion plans that could result in a fivefold increase in Queensland coal exports and shipping numbers within a decade.

Decisions made in the next three years could determine the health of the Great Barrier Reef for generations to come, Ms Douvere said.

Major developments are under way, planned or proposed at seven of the existing commercial ports along the Queensland coast, including a massive expansion of Gladstone's harbour.

If all the projects go ahead, Queensland coal exports are forecast to rise from 156 million tonnes a year to 944 million tonnes a year by 2020. This would increase shipping numbers through the reef from 1722 a year to 10,150 a year.

Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke said it was not certain all of the export projects that had been announced would proceed.

"For too long, environment approvals have been dealt with one application at a time," Mr Burke said. "A strategic assessment is occurring so we can increase protection measures and take cumulative impact measures properly into account."

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said it was important to get the balance right between the state's industrial and economic development and the protection of "our beautiful natural assets".

LNP leader Campbell Newman said the state government had "not managed the issue of the environment in Gladstone Harbour".

Ms Douvere said the World Heritage mission would assist the federal and Queensland governments with the strategic assessment to understand the cumulative impact of proposed developments on the Great Barrier Reef.

Threats to the reef include industrial and port developments, ocean acidification and climate change and a projected 40 per cent population increase in the reef catchment area.

Ms Douvere said the way in which existing development applications were dealt with before completion of the strategic assessment was crucial.

An official briefing paper prepared for the mission by the united national committee of the International Union for Conservation of Nature said it was essential to establish a transitional phase with "robust precautionary conditions".

It said these conditions should apply to proposals submitted in compliance with the arrangements in place at June 30 last year.

"If the proponents of current proposals were not prepared to operate within such conditions, then they could defer and make their case once the strategic framework and associated plans had been established," the paper says.

Mr Burke said there were a large number of proposals that people had started to lock into the pipeline. "No one should make a presumption that because somebody's applied, therefore it ends up passing the environmental tests," the Environment Minister said.

He said discussions were under way with the World Heritage committee about whether it was better to have a large number of small developments or to concentrate export facilities into a handful of places with fewer environmental values.

He said increased shipping through the reef was one of the biggest concerns.

Over the next 10 days, the World Heritage mission will visit the reef and proposed development sites including Gladstone's harbour, Bowen, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns. The mission will report back to the World Heritage Committee with a recommendation on whether the Great Barrier Reef should be declared "in danger" in May.

The World Heritage Committee will consider the recommendation at its 26th session, due to be held in the Russian city of St Petersburg in July.