A government report revealed that the marine environment along the coast of the Great Barrier Reef remains in poor health, prompting conservationists to call for urgent action ahead of a World Heritage Committee meeting this year.
The reef’s water quality assessment report, released on Wednesday, said the health of corals and seagrass meadows in coastal areas has not improved, but water quality was slightly better than in previous years.
Employees gave the condition of the marine environment in 2019 a “D” rating in relation to reports covering 2017 and 2018.
Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley and Queensland Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon said improving agricultural practices and an investment of $ 667 million to support pastoralists and sugarcane farmers is helping water conditions.
“The fact that the overall marine condition remains poor underlines the importance of these investments,” said Ley.
The Great Barrier Reef, listed as a world heritage site, is the largest system of coral reefs in the world, but is under increasing pressure from climate warming that caused mass bleaching events in 2016, 2017 and 2020.
The report’s monitoring period ended before widespread laundering started in early 2020.
Scientists say that improving water quality and reducing sediment, fertilizers and chemicals that flow into the reef waters will give the system a better chance of recovering from future bleaching.
The UN World Heritage Committee is due to review the reef situation at a meeting scheduled for June in China.
In 2017, the committee said that progress in meeting water quality targets needed to be accelerated.
Governments have set a series of targets for 2025 for the reef catchment areas.
Ley and Scanlon pointed to reductions in the levels of dissolved inorganic nitrogen – from fertilizers – with cumulative levels falling 25.5% since 2013. The target is a 60% drop by 2025.
Burdekin’s wet tropics and farmers were the main contributors to improving water quality, ministers said.
The Queensland government says that dissolved inorganic nitrogen is linked to algal blooms, outbreaks of coral-eating starfish and coral diseases.
In addition to water quality, there are also goals to improve land management practices for sugarcane, pasture, horticulture, grains and bananas.
About 90% of the land in priority areas should be using best practices by 2025, according to the targets.
Only 12.7% of the land for growing sugarcane was using best practices, the report said. The banana industry performed best, according to the report, with 65% of the land covered.
The Queensland government passed new reef water quality laws in 2019 that will give the government the power to set minimum standards.
Some rules on better record keeping are already in place, but others are scheduled for the end of this year and 2022.
Dr Lissa Schindler, activist for the Great Barrier Reef at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said the bulletin shows that governments “still have a long way to go” to achieve the water quality goals being analyzed by the committee. world Heritage.
“Improving water quality needs the support and dedication of all farmers and livestock farmers in Queensland and they will need the support of the Queensland government to adopt the required best practices,” said Schindler. “That’s why we are asking for more funding to help the agricultural sector quickly comply with regulations.”
She hoped that in the next school report in 2022, the effect of the new government laws would force improvements.
Richard Leck, head of the oceans of WWF-Australia, said: “We know that the world is watching Australia’s performance in improving water quality in the Great Barrier Reef and it is worrying that progress is slow. But it is encouraging that there is some progress.
“The Queensland government and the Australian government need to commit to long-term investments to improve water quality and ensure that reef regulations are applied properly.
“What this report shows is that we need long-term commitments to water quality. It is a long-term problem and much needs to be done ”.