<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/01/australia-tried-to-influence-other-countries-and-unesco-to-keep-great-barrier-reef-off-in-danger-list>
"The Australian government carried out an international lobbying campaign to
keep the Great Barrier Reef off a list of world heritage sites in danger,
including dispatching politicians and officials to Unesco’s Paris headquarters
and asking diplomats to gather intelligence on countries that could influence
the decision.
The campaign is revealed in documents released to the Greens after a
parliamentary request and show how Australia sought to influence Unesco and
members of the 21-country world heritage committee in the lead up to a crunch
meeting in July last year.
A sustained strategy was developed by the government and approved by the
environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, in December 2023 after the committee had
warned in September the reef would be considered for the “in-danger” list at
its next meeting in July 2024.
Plibersek said the government was “proud of the work we’ve done to better
protect the Great Barrier Reef, and pleased that UNESCO has acknowledged that
work”.
She said Labor had invested $1.2bn to better protect the reef and doubled
funding for reef science.
“We will continue to work with the World Heritage Committee and UNESCO to
ensure the protection of the Reef and all World Heritage properties impacted by
climate change, right around the globe.”
The strategy outlined how Australia would target meetings with newer members of
the committee, would meet in person and virtually with Unesco and its advisers
and identified opportunities in other international meetings to put its case
that it was doing its utmost to protect the reef.
Australia’s election to the executive board of Unesco the previous month would
provide “an additional avenue to promote Australia’s World Heritage interests”,
the strategy said."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
