[Coral-List] FW: UNESCO, Great Barrier Reef WHA Listing.

[Hughes, Terry]

Dear Coral-listers,



UNESCO and IUCN will soon meet to assess whether Australia has done enough to prevent the Great Barrier Reef from being listed as a World Heritage Area “In Danger”.



The online articles below provide some relevant background:



https://theconversation.com/is-australia-meeting-the-un-recommendations-for-the-great-barrier-reef-39243

https://theconversation.com/six-ways-australia-is-selectively-reporting-to-the-un-on-the-great-barrier-reef-37161

https://theconversation.com/the-plan-to-save-the-great-barrier-reef-is-destined-to-fail-unless-33542​​



​Canberra has released a plan, the 2050 GBR Long Term Sustainability Plan, designed to convince UNESCO that the GBR is in safe hands.  In response, the Australian Academy of Science has produced a detailed Position Statement on the Plan, which points to the Plan’s many deficiencies; publicly available online at: https://www.science.org.au/reef-2050-long-term-sustainability-plan.<https://www.science.org.au/reef-2050-long-term-sustainability-plan>  In particular, the Plan ignores climate change and seeks to develop some of the world’s largest coal ports in Queensland.



Some of us have also published two recent policy pieces in Science and Nature Climate Change that may be of interest:



Securing the future of the Great Barrier Reef http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate2604.html

Creating a safe operating space for iconic ecosystems http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6228/1317.short





Cheers,



Terry Hughes

Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies