The government has convened 16 experts to help deliver its plan to save the Great Barrier Reef.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Global Change Institute, University of Queensland
The government’s plan to save the Great Barrier Reef hinges on hitting a series of pollution and conservation targets within just a few years. A new expert panel will advise on how best to get there.
It’s still too early to declare that it’s blue skies for the Great Barrier Reef.
Underwater Earth/Catlin Seaview Survey/Wikimedia Commons
Whether it’s on the official “in danger” list or not, the Great Barrier Reef is clearly under threat. UNESCO has placed its faith in Australia, but without urgent action the problems will not go away.
The Australian government’s commitments to protecting the reef means it avoids the embarrassing classification - for now.
Australia has persuaded UNESCO it has a plan to save the Great Barrier Reef - now the policies and funds must materialise.
AAP Image/Tourism and Events Queensland
UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has spared Australia’s blushes by opting not to list the Great Barrier Reef as ‘in danger’. But it has also demanded that Australia make good on its plans to save it.
The Curtis Island gas precinct is one of the biggest developments along the Great Barrier Reef coast.
AAP Image/Greenpeace
The coast alongside the Great Barrier Reef is home to ports, farms, holiday resorts, and more than a million people. It all puts pressure on the Reef, and it’s time for some firms plans to manage it.
Loggerhead turtle populations are facing a brighter future, but many other species are still in decline, while for others there are no data at all.
AAP Image/Lauren Bath
The Great Barrier Reef is home to some 1,600 species of bony fish, 130 sharks and rays, and turtles, mammals and more. Most have had no population monitoring, meaning we don’t know how well they are faring.
When World Heritage sites are under threat, like Florida’s Everglades National Park, they are added to the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Flickr/slack12
The United Nations is set to decide whether to add the Great Barrier Reef to the List of World Heritage in Danger. But what is the list, and what does it mean for the places that are on it?
The MV Shen Neng I spills oil onto the Great Barrier Reef in 2010. Large accidents are rare, but there is still very little monitoring of long-term chronic damage from shipping.
AAP Image/AMSA
Port traffic near the Great Barrier Reef will more than double by 2025, as coal and other exports grow. While major incidents are rare, the chronic toll on the reef itself still remains largely unknown.
A flood plume containing sediments, nutrients and pesticides flowing onto the Great Barrier Reef from Bundaberg.
AAP Image/James Cook University
Successive plans to curb the sediments, nutrients and pesticides flowing into the waters around the Great Barrier Reef have fallen short, leaving the corals that call the reef home highly vulnerable.
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the most magnificent wonders of our world.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
With the United Nations set to decide on whether to list the Great Barrier Reef as officially in danger, we look at the various threats to the reef’s survival, starting with the biggie… climate change.
More mines, more roads, as the government puts its drive towards economic development ahead of all else.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Amid talk of paths to surplus and investing in infrastructure, both sides of politics seem to have forgotten Australia’s longstanding responsibility to govern sustainably, and not just for the economy.
How much money has Greg Hunt been given for Australia’s environmental programs?
AAP Image/Dan Peled
Environment minister Greg Hunt hasn’t asked for any more money for the Emissions Reduction Fund. So what is actually in the budget, as far as climate change is concerned?
Tony Abbott and Greg Hunt at last year’s Green Army launch. Funding for the initiative has been slimmed down but is still more than A$700 million.
AAP Image/Britta Campion
The Federal Budget 2015 makes little mention of emissions reductions or renewable energy, but does feature funding boosts for drought assistance and the Great Barrier Reef. What else is in?
Julie Bishop with her counterpart Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Bishop’s headwear attracted attention and some criticism in Australia.
EPA/Stringer
Julie Bishop’s high profile as foreign minister must surely be rivalling that of Kevin Rudd.
The World Heritage Committee has called for a comprehensive assessment not just of the threats to the Great Barrier Reef, but of their cumulative effect.
AAP Image/Australian Institute for Marine Science, Ray Berkelmans
The government says it has met all of the recommendations for safeguarding the Great Barrier Reef. But a close reading of the dozens of UN recommendations shows that many have been only partly fulfilled.
There are more and bigger coral trout in parts of the Great Barrier Reef closed to fishing.
AIMS LTMP
Fishing is a major threat to the Great Barrier Reef, but new research shows that areas closed to fishing just over a decade ago are home to bigger and more fish.
A dredging ship in Queensland’s Gladstone Harbour.
AAP Image/Dave Hunt
A new report aims to establish exactly what we do and don’t know about the effects of dredging on the Great Barrier Reef, and suggests that managing fine sediments will be one of the biggest challenges.
The new Reef 2050 plan is taking the long view on protecting the Great Barrier Reef - but does it have the right vision?
Nickj/Wikimedia Commons
The federal and Queensland governments have unveiled their blueprint for protecting the Great Barrier Reef for future generations. Will the $2 billion plan succeed? Our experts give their verdicts.
Abbot Point on the Great Barrier Reef, where dredge spoil will be dumped on land.
AAP Image/Supplied by Greenpeace
The Australian government’s latest report on the Great Barrier Reef, submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre last Friday, has been carefully crafted and word-smithed, with many of its claims supported…