Queensland pleads for more time to protect the fragile barrier reef

AUSTRALIA’S Queensland government will have to ask Unesco for more time to introduce measures to protect the Great Barrier Reef, officials said yesterday, after a key conservation bill was rejected by the state government.

Queensland is under pressure from the global heritage body to protect the worldfamous reef better, or have it placed on Unesco’s “in danger” list as early as next year.

Australia’s north-easter n state’s minority Labor government failed on Thursday to pass a law cracking down on tree clearing, which is linked to reef protection.

Tree clearing leaves the remaining soil more vulnerable to erosion, which increases the amount of sediment flowing into the ocean. Scientists and advocates say the increased sediment can kill coral and seagrass by blocking out sunlight.

The vegetation management bill, aimed at combating the increased pace of tree clearing in the region, failed to pass by one vote.

The government now wants Unesco to wait until it can secure a hoped-for parliamentary majority in 2018 elections so it can scrap the current framework, which is more relaxed about tree cutting.

“Our intention is to plead with Unesco to give us more time,” Queensland’s Environment Minister Steven Miles said yesterday.

The World Heritage Committee is set to decide next year whether the reef should be on the “in danger” list.

An “in danger” rating could significantly hurt tourism and jobs.

“What’s at stake here is very, very substantial,” Miles said. “Studies show World Heritage listing can increase tourism by about 25 percent.”

The reef is one of the country’s main tourist attractions, generating A$5 billion (R51bn) per year and providing 70 000 jobs.

Queensland deputy premier Jackie Trad told local broadcaster ABC that “the Queensland parliament as it is, with a hung parliament, is not up to the challenge of enacting laws that will save the Great Barrier Reef ”.

She said the government would continue to use administrative powers to crack down on tree clearing, despite the bill. “Clearing is happening at an unsustainable rate now; nearly 300 000 was cleared in the last financial year,” she said. The rejected bill would have forced local farmers to prove there had been no illegal clearing on their land.

On Thursday, David Thomas, the country’s biggest environmental philanthropist, said private investment to restore the barrier reef would dry up if the bill for tighter land clearing failed.

In 2014, the Australia successfully lobbied Unesco’s World Heritage Committee not to include the barrier reef on the in-danger list. In return, Australia was supposed to report on the progress of conservation at the reef by December. – dpa