The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has decided not to place the Great Barrier Reef on the list of ‘in danger’ sites, despite alarming predictions of an extreme El Niño event set to bring devastating coral bleaching this summer.
While the committee, which met late July, acknowledged that the Australian government had made “significant progress,” it said the reef remains under “serious threat” from climate change and pollution.
The UNESCO report stated that “sustained action is essential in order to improve the reef’s long-term resilience,” and called on the government to provide a progress update by February 1.
However, scientists predict that the reef’s condition is unlikely to improve significantly just six months from now.
Sources: 1998 and 2002 data from Aims, 2016 data from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
Marian Wong, a Professor of Tropical Marine Biology at the University of Wollongong said that the report contains serious oversights of the current health of the Great Barrier Reef.
“While hard coral cover has increased in some areas, this observation alone should not be indicative of the overall state of the health of the reef and its fish inhabitants, particularly those that live in corals and help corals to survive and grow,” Wong said.
“The report has not considered the trends from key reef fish species, such as coral gobies.
“Without consideration of their recovery, the current health of the Great Barrier Reef is being overstated.”
This raises concerns for the coming summer as the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and the World Meteorological Organisation announced the arrival of an extreme El Niño event. This natural climate fluctuation, known to increase ocean temperatures, directly impacts coral ecosystems.
Terry Hughes, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University said in a written statement that the reef is already under significant stress from previous bleaching events in 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2022.
“As El Niño conditions strengthen once more, it’s very likely we’ll see another mass bleaching event next summer, just after the report is written,” Hughes said.
A report from the Australian Academy of Sciences, released last week, said the El Niño event will likely damage the reef in ways that could become “irreversible”.
In response to the UNESCO report, the Australian government has pledged to “act on climate change” to preserve the Great Barrier Reef. However, experts highlight that without swift and substantial action, the reef’s fate remains uncertain.
