In what has been hailed as a “big win” by the Australian government, the Great Barrier Reef has yet again escaped an “in danger” listing by UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee despite suffering back-to-back mass bleaching events. In a decision released Thursday, UNESCO said it “highly welcomed” the reef conservation initiatives — particularly the Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan — undertaken in recent years by the Australian federal and Queensland state governments. It noted, however, that the committee still has “serious concern” about the devastating bleaching that decimated the reef in 2016 and 2017. Federal and state governments need to “accelerate efforts” to meet the targets of Reef 2050, paying particular attention to land clearance and water quality issues, UNESCO added. Government officials in Australia celebrated the United Nations agency’s decision on Thursday, though appeared to disagree over who deserved more credit for the positive outcome.

Source: Huffington Post July 06, 2017 14:26 UTC