Australian government may have misled UN on reef: WWF

Petrina Berry 9News 23 Feb 12;

A conservation group has questioned whether the government ignored its own science to mislead a UN agency about the health of the Great Barrier Reef.

A monitoring mission from the UN educational and cultural arm, UNESCO, will visit Queensland in March over concerns about gas-related port developments and other potential threats to the reef.

UNESCO last year rebuked the federal government for failing to tell it about approvals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects inside the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

It expressed "extreme concern" about the Queensland and federal governments' backing of LNG processing plants at Curtis Island off Gladstone.

The federal government has made a submission to UNESCO ahead of next month's visit, saying the reef is being sustainably managed.

The submission also says the reef has not been "compromised" by the LNG projects and related dredging at Gladstone, inside the World Heritage area, where sick marine life has been found.

The World Wildlife Fund says the submission has contradicted the government's own science.

"It has really shocked us that the government would present the reef in such (favourable) terms when the government's own science shows the reef is in serious trouble," WWF national manager Nick Heath told AAP.

He said the government had failed to acknowledge its own 2009 outlook report that warned of 'catastrophic damage' to the reef.

"At the very least, has the government got the science wrong? Or is the government trying to mislead an international investigation into the impact LNG proposals, and accumulative risks, have on the reef?"

Mr Heath said recent research published in a scientific journal found the reef's coral had declined by up to 50 per cent since the 1960s.

A quarter of that damage had occurred since the reef was declared a World Heritage site in 1981, the research found.

He said 1000 turtles had washed up on Queensland beaches over the past year and fishing nets were killing rare marine species.

The Queensland government has been unable to rule out industrial development and dredging as the cause of a great number of fish and other marine life with external and internal sores and cloudy eyes at Gladstone.

The federal government's submission said "enormous management improvements" had been made since the reef's World Heritage listing.

"It is supported by a network of island national parks and effective field management," it says.

But the government's most recent outlook report on the reef, from 2009, said loss of coastal habitats from coastal development and the effects of fishing and poaching were "priority issues reducing the resilience" of the reef.

It also said coral reef habitats were gradually declining, especially inshore as a result of poor water quality and the compounding effects of climate change.

And it noted important species such as dugong, marine turtles, seabirds and some sharks had "declined significantly".

On Saturday, the federal and state governments and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said a joint assessment would be undertaken to ensure future development along the Queensland coast was properly planned and the reef's World Heritage values protected.

Comment was being sought from federal Environment Minister Tony Burke.