Home » Australian Government Announces Billion Dollar Package to protect Great Barrier Reef

Australian Government Announces Billion Dollar Package to protect Great Barrier Reef

By Ameena Ameena - Jan 31 2022

The government of Australia has announced a billion-dollar package to protect the natural wonder Great Barrier Reef. The reef, as of now, is under the threat of the climate crisis.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the reef contributes to the world’s 85 percent of corals. But now UNESCO has put it in its “in danger” list.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced Aus$1 billion (US$700 million) under a nine-year plan. “We are backing the health of the reef and the economic future of tourism operators, hospitality providers and Queensland communities that are at the heart of the reef economy.” Morrison said.
It was in 2015 that the UN threatened to downgrade the listing of the reef and soon Australia created a Reef 2050 plan and spent billions of dollars into protection.
At present, Australians are absolutely in favour of action to limit climate change having gone through some worst climatic conditions such as bushfires, droughts and floods.
As per a poll conducted in 2021 by Sydney’s Lowy Institute, it was discovered that 60 percent of Australians believed “global warming is a serious and pressing problem”. And Australia being the biggest exporters of coal and gas in the world needs to protect and safeguard its natural treasure.
According to the reports, this government’s fund will mostly be spent on preventing damaging agricultural runoff from polluting the reef and the other quarter of the package will be used to reduce threats from Crown of Thorns Starfish (coral eating) by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

The funding pledge arrives just days before Australia is due to send a report to Unesco about the state of the reef and its plans to protect it, before a critical meeting of the world heritage committee scheduled for July in Russia.
Funding will support scientists, farmers and traditional owners, backing in the very latest marine science while building resilience and reducing threats from pollution in our oceans, and predators such as the crown-of-thorns starfish.
Billed by the government as the “single largest investment” in the reef, the nine-year investment includes more than half a billion dollars for water quality, covering work on erosion, land condition, and reducing runoff of pesticides and nutrients. Another $253m will specifically address reef management and conservation, including work from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to combat crown-of-thorns starfish and prevent illegal fishing.
Other funds will go towards reef health monitoring systems and research into reef resilience, and $74.4m will target habitat restoration, marine debris and species protection in programs led by traditional owners and community groups.
The government said its proposal would almost double the number of areas to be protected from crown-of-thorns starfish, from 253 to 500 reefs, as well as encouraging local farmers to improve land management to reduce agricultural runoff into the ocean.

Last year UN science advisers recommended the reef be placed on the world heritage “in danger” list – the first time any site had been recommended for the listing primarily because of the impacts of climate change.
After a strong protest from the federal government, including dispatching Ley on a private jet to personally lobby world heritage committee membersaround the world, the reef was not given the listing.
But the committee asked Australia to submit a report by 1 February this year on the reef’s condition and the steps taken to protect it.
A monitoring mission to be led by Unesco experts is also due to be held in the first half of this year before the world heritage committee considers again whether to put the reef on its list of sites “in danger” at its next meeting in July.