The decision to keep the Great Barrier Reef on a watching brief is quite expected in light of the recent publicity about its status and also probably quite a good outcome in terms of public policy for environmental management.  To have the eyes of the world continue to scrutinise this global asset of ours is a good thing.   

This outcome should keep the federal and state governments on their toes whilst focussing public attention from around the world.  In particular we need to collectively consider how we can manage the Reef and the region in better ways that still provide for human activities but do not jeopardise the reef’s future.

The staging of further reviews in 18 months and four years allows enough time to determine whether what we have promised to do is in fact occurring – but may not extend long enough to provide a definitive answer about future prospects for the Reef.  I say this because the loss of half of the living coral cover over the past few decades has crept up on us and yet the issues arising from actively managing for, and adapting to, likely climate change do not seem to be uppermost in the present planning to 2050.  Meanwhile the total environment of the Great Barrier Reef drifts on and we may yet be surprised by any declines in biodiversity and other values that lag behind their causes.

Hopefully over the next few years we can have both a more focussed review of how the Reef is doing along with more clever decision-making that maintain interests of both the environment and economics.

UNESCO has acknowledged Australia’s recent progress, but the World Heritage Committee is still concerned about the future of the Reef. The focus is now very much on turning the new 2050 Reef Plan into reality. Australia will be asked to report regularly on its implementation of the Plan, and to show that it is adequately funded to achieve its targets. The pressure for Australia to improve its  protection of the Reef has certainly not gone away.

The 2050 Plan to rescue the Great Barrier Reef is a work in progress, and the science community in Australia is keen to help improve it.  It’s in nobody’s interests for the Reef to be listed “in danger”.

The World Heritage Committee’s decision was strongly influenced by breakthroughs in just the past few weeks to curb the number of ports along the Queensland coast, and especially to ban dumping at sea of capital dredge spoil.

The elephant in the room is still the Galilee coal basin, and the inevitable damage it will cause to the World Heritage Area if its development proceeds. The 2050 Plan is largely silent on climate change, even though the Commonwealth’s own 5-yearly Great Barrier Reef report card has identified climate change as the single largest threat to the Reef.

The decision that was ratified today recognises the work done by the Queensland and Australian governments in convincing the world they are intent on reversing the decline of the Great Barrier Reef.  Much now needs to be done – especially on achieving the targets that have been set in terms of reducing sediment and nutrient run-off.  If we can solve these two, then the greatest threat facing the Reef in the short term will be averted.

However, the remaining issue – climate change – still looms as one of the greatest threat in the long-term.  This will require equally sincere and real action at COP21 in Paris.  Let’s hope that we get committed action out of the Abbott government before it too late for one of Australia’s great environmental assets.