REEF RELIEF

DANGER AVERTED

CAIRNS tourism operators have breathed a sigh of relief as the Great Barrier Reef avoided being labelled as “in danger” by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.

After weeks of controversy since the draft decision was made public, committee members on Friday night decided Australia should be given more time to show its actions were helping to improve the health of the Great Barrier Reef.

Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators CEO Gareth Phillips said his members were pleased with the decision, which includes a commitment from UNESCO to send a reactive monitoring mission to visit the reef and report back to the committee.

Of the committee’s 21 member countries, 20 voted in favour of an amendment from Bahrain to defer the decision on whether to place the Great Barrier Reef on the “in danger” list until 2023.

“It’s hard to dissect it exactly, but negative media around the reef definitely gives a bad perception to potential travellers of coming to the reef,” Mr Phillips said.

“We haven’t been able to in past experiences put exact numbers on the effect, but significant effort has to go into marketing the area, and reassuring guests that yes, it’s having troubles, but it’s still worthwhile.

“If it was listed as in danger, that potentially could have exacerbated our challenges to attract visitors.”

Mr Phillips said postponing the decision to list the reef as “in danger” meant it would give the Australian government, the World Heritage Committee and the International Union for Conservation of Nature more time to discuss the actions Australia was taking to protect the Reef, as well as to see the Reef in person.

Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef Warren Entsch described the decision as a “strong message for UNESCO to actually get off their arses and come to Australia and have a look (at the Reef)”.

He said he was relieved by the committee’s action.

“It’s an overwhelming acknowledgment from those UNESCO committee members that Australia – collectively – is doing a lot of great work there,” he said.

A number of member countries noted the impact climate change was having on the Great Barrier Reef, which was not an issue Australia could address on its own.

Speaking after the decision, representatives from the World Wild Fund – Australia said the original draft decision to list the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger” was put forward based on the “best available science”.

“Regrettably the decision made delays action by one year,” the representative told the committee.