The Australian government, (not to mention tourism & incentives operators) has welcomed a draft UNESCO decision to a lift a threat of downgrading the Great Barrier Reef to an endangered World Heritage site.
The U.N. cultural agency and the International Union for Conservation of Nature recommended in November 2022 that the world’s largest coral reef system be added to the List of World Heritage in Danger due to threats including rising ocean temperatures.
But UNESCO issued an updated a report that said it would be appropriate to re-evaluate whether fitted the World Heritage ‘in-danger’ criteria.
In 2022 two thirds of the Great Barrier Reef was recorded as having its highest level of coral cover, since monitoring began 36 years ago by the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
Resources
Has the Great Barrier Reef changed since the 1980s?
Rise and fall of the Great Barrier Reef over 30,000 years
