The Great Barrier Reef is increasingly challenged by climate change, as well as by other stressors that make matters worse. We know that coral cover has declined by 50 per cent in the past 30 years, and most of the decline has occurred close to shore where pollution, dredging and fishing pressure are concentrated.

Our study highlights the need to incorporate science into management policies – we can't continue with business as usual. Australian society will have to choose between a healthy Great Barrier Reef, or new coal mines and the largest coal ports in the world. The science is very clear – you can't have both.

Iconic places attract national and international tourists. If we can't protect our iconic places, then there is no hope at all for those places that are less visible. The crucial issue is the difficulty in identifying the threshold beyond which recovery is impossible. When that threshold is breached an ecological system can undergo rapid, substantial and irreversible change. It is like the straw that breaks the camel's back. You don't know that the camel's back is going to be broken until you add that last straw.

The authors highlight the importance of local solutions to a global problem. However, we need to do a better job of engaging local people. If we want local people to protect local places, they need to see a reason for doing this.  As the authors point out, 'doom and gloom' accounts of climate change produces sceptics.

Indigenous knowledge and other forms of traditional ecological knowledge can be of great value in the management of local places. People who have lived in an area for many generations can provide long-term monitoring of a situation. For example, they may have continuing knowledge of changes in local environments or in the seasonal distribution of particular species.  Sometimes, they can precisely identify the location of breeding grounds, and the times they most need to be avoided, or micro-environments that are particularly vulnerable to dredging or other activities.

Ecotourism is increasingly viewed as a means for promoting conservation and protecting fragile ecosystems or species.  Like cultural heritage tourism, ecotourism can provide the financial incentives for local protection.  One example of this is at the island of Palau in Micronesia, when economic modelling by a team led by David Pannell of the University of Western Australia showed that there were greater economic benefits in shark tourism than in killing sharks and selling their products. This study found that the economy gained more by selling fish for consumption by shark divers than it would by harvesting sharks.

Australia is a leader in the protection of World Heritage in the Pacific. What we do is noted, and followed, by others.  In its recent term on the World Heritage Committee, from 2007 to 2011, Australia had a strong focus on improving the credibility and operations of the World Heritage Convention.  That credibility is now under threat.