Australia’s Reef 2050 Plan ‘not enough’ to Save Great Barrier Reef

Researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) have teamed up with other scientists to produce a report which casts doubts on Australia’s ability to avoid significant further damage to the Great Barrier Reef.

The news comes at an importune moment for the Australian government, who very recently gave the green light on the biggest coal mine in the country's history. In light of the report, it’s possible that UNESCO may act to place the reef on its endangered list.

A Gradual State of Decline

In 2013, it was found that the reef had suffered a decline in its condition of more than 50% since 1985. Most of this deterioration was put down to the harmful effects of storms, along with the proliferation of crown-of-thorns starfish. These creatures feed upon the coral and had been enjoying a boom in population due to the amount of fertilisers from nearby farms finding their way into the water. This only adds to the vast amounts of sediments, nutrients and pesticides that are allowed to enter the coastal waters and disrupt the natural habitats there.

As a result, the UN issued Australia with a formal warning, threatening to downgrade the reef’s status if measures were not taken. In response, the Australian government submitted the Reef 2050 Plan in 2015, designed to curb pollutant practices and allay fears about the future of the reef by stepping up efforts to preserve its environmental integrity.

Among other targets, the government pledged to reduce the run-off of nitrogen by 80% before 2025 and halve total contaminant run-off by the same deadline. This latest report from AIMS, named Towards protecting the Great Barrier Reef from land-based pollution, suggests that such targets are unlikely to be met unless the government steps up its initiatives.

What Can Be Done

As yet, most schemes to save the reef are not compulsory and are reliant on the voluntary cooperation of local farmers. For this reason, the targets are unlikely to be met unless collaboration with the authorities in curbing pollutant practices is made mandatory.

Success has been seen elsewhere. In 2011, the largest ultraviolet (UV) disinfectant system in Australia was installed in Melbourne, simultaneously improving the quality of the water in the surrounding bays and generating non-potable water supplies for toilet flushing, plant watering and similar purposes.

Similar initiatives in Queensland are not yet forthcoming, and the authors of the study believe that a mixture of enforced legislation and changing attitudes is key to preserving the future of the Great Barrier Reef. As well as calling upon the government to impose harsher penalties for excessive pollution, the study also challenged farmers to alter the agricultural use to which they put their land and to retire swathes of it completely.

Dr Frederieke Kroon, one of the lead authors on the study, said that while there would be no “quick-fix”, there was certainly scope for optimism and highlighted examples in China and Denmark where governmental intervention had improved conditions significantly.