A UN committee recommendation on Tuesday to add the Great Barrier Reef to a list of "in danger" World Heritage Sites provoked a furious response from the Australian government, which said it had been blindsided by the move which it believed was politically motivated.
The long-term outlook for the world's biggest coral reef system had deteriorated and action was needed to counter the effects of climate change, said the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation committee, which sits under UNESCO.
Australia's Environment Minister Sussan Ley said Canberra would challenge the recommendation, saying it went against advice given just a week ago, and defended Australia's protection of the reef.
"This is a complete subversion of normal process," Ley said.
Australia has for years been battling to keep the Great Barrier Reef, a major tourist attraction that supports thousands of jobs, off the "in danger" list, a step that could potentially lead towards its eventual removal as a World Heritage Site.
In 2015, its lobbying included hosting UNESCO World Heritage delegates on a trip to an unspoiled stretch of the reef, but since then, scientists say, the world's largest living ecosystem has suffered three major coral bleaching events due to severe marine heatwaves.
Ley said she and Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne raised their concerns overnight with the Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay to convey Australia’s “strong disappointment” and bewilderment” at the proposal.
"We were blindsided by a sudden late decision," Ley said, referring to the proposal which she claims bypassed the UN committee's normal consultation processes.
"It is almost unheard of for a site to be added to the endangered list, or recommended … without the necessary consultation leading up to it.”
A tit-for-tat move by China?
Ley went further, pointing the finger at China, which chairs UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, and said the decision “singled out” Australia’s reef from among dozens of other World Heritage-listed sites considered at risk that had not been subject to the same draft recommendations.
"This decision was flawed. Clearly, there were politics behind it," she said, without elaborating.
A government source told Reuters that Canberra believes China, which chairs the committee, is responsible for the move amid a souring of relations between the two countries.
"We will appeal but China is in control," the source said, declining to be named as he is not authorised to talk to the media.
China's embassy in Canberra did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Australia and China have been locked in an enduring trade and diplomatic spat that has led China to impose trade sanctions on major Australian exports and hit its peak when China published a list of 14 grievances against the Australian government earlier this year.
However, many environment experts, including Richard Leck, head of Oceans for the World Wide Fund for Nature, Australia, have rejected the view that the decision was politically motivated.
"There is no avenue for any government to have any input. This recommendation is reached by world-renowned scientists," said Leck, who was part of a group of conservationists that lobbied 13 members of the UNESCO committee to reach its recommendation.
Imogen Zethoven, an environmental consultant to the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said there was no doubt that climate change presented a significant threat to the reef.
"Last year the [International Union for Conservation of Nature or IUCN], which is the advisory body to the World Heritage Committee, identified that because of climate change the outlook for the Great Barrier Reef was now critical.
"So I don't think anyone could be surprised that UNESCO has come up with this draft decision to put [it] on the 'in danger' list," Zethoven told ABC Australia.
Tourism operators baffled
Despite the known environmental risks facing the reef, local tourism operators said they were nevertheless caught off guard by UNESCO’s draft recommendation.
Scott Garden, who owns the Cairns-based reef tour company Passions of Paradise told the ABC he disagreed with the decision to list the reef as “in danger” given the “amazing” and “beautiful” marine life he had observed.
"Yes the reef has had its challenges with crown-of-thorns starfish and cyclones but the reef is healthy and rebuilds itself," Garden said.
The Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators, a non-profit group that represents reef tourism operators, said it was also surprised to learn of the recommendation to list the reef as "in danger".
The association's chief executive, Gareth Phillips, who is also a marine biologist, said the Great Barrier Reef was looking "really, really good". Although the reef is facing challenges induced by climate change, Phillips said that the tourism industry was closely monitoring its health and striving to operate at high environmental standards.
"These sorts of listings are demoralising and it also has an impact on tourism, people don't want to go out and see something that they think is dead," Phillips said in an interview with the ABC.
The announcement by UNESCO came as Australia swore in its new deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, who opposes action on climate change that increases prices and which jeopardises an economy heavily reliant on coal exports. Observers say his new post signals that Australia is likely to set less ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Terry Hughes, director of the Australian Research Council’s Center for Excellence in Coral Reef Studies, said Australia’s refusal to commit to a net zero carbon emissions target by 2050 made the country a “complete outlier".
“This draft decision from UNESCO is pointing the finger at Australia and saying: ‘If you’re serious about saving the Great Barrier Reef, you need to do something about your climate policies,’” Hughes told the ABC.
The draft recommendation will be voted on by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee which meets in China in late July.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AP)
