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Great Barrier Reef on Way To Vol. 14, No. 1 July / August 2012 International news and analysis on marine protected areas Great Barrier Reef on Way to ‘World Heritage in Danger’ List Unless Development Plans Stopped The Great Barrier Reef may be listed as a World There are currently 35 applications for new coastal Heritage site “in danger” unless several proposed development in the region, including for large ports plans for new ports and other coastal development in and liquefied natural gas facilities. the Australian state of Queensland are shelved. Table of Contents If the Australian and Queensland governments cannot At its annual meeting in June 2012, the UNESCO show “substantial progress” in addressing the concerns Great Barrier Reef on World Heritage Committee gave the Australian raised, the World Heritage Committee has indicated Way to ‘World Heritage and Queensland governments less than a year (until it will consider inscribing the Great Barrier Reef to its in Danger’ List Unless February 2013) to develop and apply a highly precau- List of World Heritage in Danger. The committee Development Plans tionary process to consideration of coastal develop- uses such inscriptions to attract international atten- Stopped ........................ 1 ment proposals. That process will be expected to tion to threats and move governments to take action. New Calculation of World forbid any proposal — inside or adjacent to the site Both governments are now undertaking a compre- MPA Coverage is Twice — that would significantly impact the “outstanding hensive strategic assessment of the Great Barrier Reef Previous Estimates, but universal value” of the World Heritage area. to address each of the key issues confronting the Still Far Below Target ... 2 ecosystem. New Global MPA There is nearly complete overlap between the Great Database Launched: Background on the Great Barrier Reef and Barrier Reef Marine Park and the Great Barrier Reef MPAtlas.org .................. 3 marine World Heritage World Heritage Area: 99% of the World Heritage Area • The Great Barrier Reef was inscribed on the is covered by the federally managed Marine Park. The Australia Announces World Heritage list in 1981. remaining 1% of the World Heritage Area is state- Final Proposal for MPA managed and comprises ports and most of the islands. Network, Including Coral • The peer-reviewed Great Barrier Reef Outlook Sea MPA ....................... 4 Report 2009 (www.gbrmpa.gov.au/outlook- Sophisticated management, yet still under threat MPA Perspective: Coral for-the-reef/great-barrier-reef-outlook-report ) The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is generally MPAs and the Need highlighted threats to the Great Barrier Reef and recognized in the global MPA community for its for Long-Term Local identified the following issues in priority order as sophisticated management, including a zoning frame- Community Benefits .... 5 those reducing its resilience: work based on 70 bioregions and a comprehensive 1. Climate change; water quality protection program that is co-managed Notes & News .............. 6 2. Continued declining water quality from catch- by the Australian and Queensland governments. The LMMA Lessons: How ment runoff; possibility that the site could be added to the World Communities Prepare for 3. Loss of coastal habitats from coastal develop- Heritage in Danger list is a reminder that even well- Managing their Marine ment; and managed MPAs face threats and the potential for Resources .................... 6 4. Remaining impacts from fishing and illegal decline. fishing/poaching. Songs for MPAs ........... 8 In March 2012, IUCN and the World Heritage Cen- • Climate change is a global issue facing all tre conducted a joint mission to the Great Barrier Reef natural World Heritage properties — particularly to examine the development situation. The resulting n • o marine sites, for which ocean acidification is a report expressed concerns regarding the lack of a i t n of a o c significant threat. sufficiently precautionary approach to decision- ati c u li making on new coastal development applications. b d u • There are currently 46 marine sites inscribed on p E As evidence, the report stated that since 1999, A the World Heritage list within 35 countries. The d Queensland government has approved 70% of all n newest-listed marine site is the Rock Islands in a coastal development proposals that had the po- Palau, inscribed in 2012. h M c tential to impact the reef’s outstanding universal r a a ri e continued on next page ne es Affairs R value. The mission report is available at ly poses a risk to the health of the Great Barrier Reef,” http://whc.unesco.org/document/117104 . he says. “One of the best ways to build resilience to cope with climate change is to reduce these other “I think it is fair to expect more of the [decision- pressures.“ making] process than was in place when the World Heritage delegation visited earlier this year,” says For more information: Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell. Powell is a member of the Liberal National Party, Marine World Heritage in Danger Alexandria Bernard Two marine World Heritage sites are currently (senior media advisor), which took power in Queensland in March. He says inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger: Ministry for Environment the state government is moving quickly to ensure high environmental standards are met. “We are pur- and Heritage Protection, Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System (Belize) Brisbane, QLD, Australia. suing a strategic ports plan to make sure development • Inscribed on World Heritage List in 1996. E-mail: alex.bernard@ occurs in a measured and responsible manner in the • Inscribed on Danger List from 2009-present. ministerial.qld.gov.au future. Where projects are not environmentally or economically sound, I am confident the government • Threats to site value: sale and lease of public Jon Day, Great Barrier will take action.” lands for development within the site, leading to Reef Marine Park Authority, destruction of mangrove and marine ecosystems. Townsville, Queensland, UNESCO is concerned that the potential coastal Australia. E-mail: development projects will cause the loss of critical Everglades National Park (United States) [email protected] habitat, including for dugongs and other threatened species. The development could also reduce overall • Inscribed on World Heritage List in 1979. ecosystem resilience to climate change — which, • Inscribed on Danger List from 1993-2007 and through coral bleaching and acidification, is consid- again 2010-present. ered the main threat facing the Great Barrier Reef. • Threats to site value: alterations in hydrological regime, increased nutrient pollution, and adjacent Jon Day, director of planning, heritage, and sustain- urban and agricultural growth. able funding for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, shares these concerns. “Expanding coastal development and the associated pressures undoubted- New Calculation of World MPA Coverage is Twice Previous Estimates, but Still Far Below Target A coalition of six UK-based NGOs has concluded Society of London (www.marinereservescoalition.org ) . that global MPA coverage amounts to 3.2% of the Below, MPA News speaks with coalition coordinator world ocean. That figure is well below the 10% glob- Fiona Llewellyn and analyst Chris Yesson about their al MPA coverage target set by the UN Convention on calculations of MPA coverage and the implications for Biological Diversity for 2020. On the bright side, global MPA progress: the 3.2% figure is at least double what other experts MPA News: have estimated for current coverage, as recently as Your 3.2% figure for global MPA cover- early 2012 (MPA News 13:5). age is twice as high as some other estimates. How do you explain this difference, considering your data came The Marine Reserves Coalition, which calculated the from the same source that other calculations have used global MPA coverage figure, also assessed MPA cover- — the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA)? age by country. The latter calculations resulted in a Fiona Llewellyn: Top 5 of: There are a number of large pro- tected areas that are missing from the WDPA. So 1. Monaco (100% MPA coverage of country’s total although our analysis was based primarily on the sea area) WDPA, we did have to manually add our own data as 2. Bosnia and Herzegovina (97.1%) well, where we were aware of missing areas. 3. Portugal (51.6%) Chris Yesson: 4. Kazakhstan (47.3%) The WDPA is continually updated, so 5. Estonia (45.7%) there are more MPAs in it now than, say, six months ago. For example, the 1 million-km2 South Georgia The coalition consists of the Blue Marine Foundation, MPA, designated by the UK, only appeared in the ClientEarth, Greenpeace UK, Marine Conservation WDPA in June 2012, and several relatively large Society, Pew Environment Group, and the Zoological MPAs (tens of thousands of square kilometers in size) 2 MPA News were not yet in the WDPA when I did our analysis. MPA News: Some practitioners have suggested there Also, I do not know what definition of “marine pro- should be greater attention paid to managing exist- tected area” other analyses have used in their coverage ing MPAs effectively, as opposed to designating new calculations. This might have led them to exclude MPAs in a effort simply to achieve coverage targets. some areas that are effectively fisheries management Are you concerned about a flurry of paper parks being zones (i.e., with very limited protection) that we designated by governments to achieve the 10% target For more information: included in our calculations. by 2020? Fiona Llewellyn, MPA News: The top five countries for MPA coverage Llewellyn: We want to see governments actively Zoological Society of include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, and working toward achieving – as an absolute minimum London, UK. E-mail: Estonia — each not often recognized for its MPA first step – the 10% target from the Convention on [email protected] work.
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