Independent Survey - GBR Protection Plan (Such As It Is) Set Back At Least 20 Years
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Canberra updated the U.N.’s World Heritage committee on its “Reef 2050” rescue plan in December, insisting the site was “not dying” and laying out a strategy for incremental improvements to the site.
But an independent report commissioned by the committee concluded that the government had little chance of meeting its own targets in the coming years, adding that the “unprecedented” bleaching and coral die-off in 2016 was “a game changer.” “Given the severity of the damage and the slow trajectory of recovery, the overarching vision of the 2050 Plan… is no longer attainable for at least the next two decades,” the report said.
Last year’s bleaching killed two-thirds of shallow-water corals in the north of the 2,300-kilometer (1,400-mile) reef, although central and southern areas escaped with less damage. The government has pledged more than 2.0 billion Australian dollars ($1.5 billion) to protect the reef over the next decade, but researchers noted a lack of available funding, with many of the plan’s actions underresourced.
The latest assessment comes after the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority warned the Queensland State government of an “elevated and imminent risk” of mass-bleaching this year, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/02/24/asia-pacific/science-health-asia-pacific/plan-save-great-barrier-reef-set-back-decades-australian-experts-say/#.WLGGE_JW854