UNESCO to decide if Australia's Great Barrier Reef is in danger

The United Nations world heritage body UNESCO will decide on Wednesday whether to list Australia's Great Barrier Reef as "in danger."

Concerns were raised in May over the decision to allow dredging near the reef, the ABC reported.

UNESCO recommended adding the reef to the World Heritage in Danger list in 2015, unless the Queensland Government took further action to protect it.

The committee is meeting this week in Doha and Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell is also there to convince UNESCO the reef is not in danger.

"I'm very confident that there won't be a decision at this session," he said.

"We've delivered nearly everything that UNESCO has asked of us, and by next year we'll have done that."

• However, Josh Coates from the Cairns and Far North Environment Center said despite the action taken by the government to protect the reef, there were an "unprecedented number" of dredging proposals along the Queensland coast.

• "Those are actually going to be releasing more sediments and more nutrients into the water column, impacting on the reef and their in-shore environments," he said. 

Sources :Xinhua  - globaltimes.cn
18/6/14
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