Trad has emerged from a meeting in Paris with a Unesco official, Fanny Douvere, to declare the state Labor government would restore clearing controls, one of its “key commitments” to the reef, if it won another term of office.
She indicated the defeat of Labor’s clearing controls owing to crossbench opposition in a hung parliament last month had been raised during an otherwise “positive meeting” about the Queensland government’s progress on a long-term conservation plan for the reef.
Australia’s reef 2050 long-term sustainability plan, urgently updated with input by the Palaszczuk government after its election, spared the reef an “in-danger” listing by the UN’s world heritage committee last year.
“While Unesco provided positive feedback on the work already under way, they recognised the importance of strengthening our vegetation protections laws – one of the Palaszczuk government’s key commitments to protect the Great Barrier Reef,” Trad said.
“Despite recent setbacks in parliament, the Palaszczuk government is still resolutely committed to protecting our reef and will reinstate our nation-leading vegetation protection laws if we are returned at the next election.”
The Palaszczuk government argues that tree-clearing controls are critical for the reef by reducing farm runoff pollution and carbon emissions. They are opposed by the farmers’ lobby and some traditional owners concerned about development hurdles.
Australia is due to lodge a formal progress report on its reef plan with Unesco’s World Heritage Centre and the International Union for Conservation of Nature in December.
Trad said the World Heritage Centre would then carry out “a robust scientific assessment of this report” to hold both the Australian and the Queensland governments to account after their commitments made to a Unesco meeting in Bonn last year.
The reef suffered its world bleaching event on record this Australian summer, killing off 22% of its coral, according to government agencies.
Trad said the state had been “undertaking work to build the resilience of the reef and helping it recover from events like recent coral bleaching”.
She cited the state’s $22m boost in reef water quality programs in 2016 and its $33m investment over four years to target “pollutant hotspots” from grazing and sugarcane growing.
Great Barrier Reef: Unesco pushes for tree-clearing controls
27 September 2016
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Unesco has acknowledged the importance of stymied tree-clearing controls in Queensland to efforts to protect the Great Barrier Reef, according to the state’s deputy premier, Jackie Trad.
