Great Barrier Reef Hit By Bleaching as UNESCO Weighs 'In Danger' Listing
from March 21 to meet scientists, regulators, policymakers from the Australian and Queensland state governments, and members of the public, a federal environment department spokesperson said.The team will report to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which is due to meet in June.Australia's conservative government has come under fire for not doing enough to save the world's most extensive coral reef, even though it boosted spending to improve water quality, reef monitoring and habitat protection by A$1 billion ($738 million) this year.While investing in those programs, Canberra has set less ambitious
Big Canada Projects Will Have to do More to Protect Fish
must go hand in hand ... we are beginning to rebuild public trust in how decisions are made about resource development projects," LeBlanc told a televised news conference in Vancouver on the Pacific Coast. The measure, outlined in draft legislation, reverses a move by the previous Conservative government in 2012 to pare back protections so only commercially significant stocks of fish were covered. The new law would require all fish and their habitat to be protected. Larger-scale projects likely to have an impact on fish need special ministerial permits before they can be built but
Great Barrier Reef Protection: Australia Approved Sand Dumping
environmental activist group Greenpeace , which is fighting plans by Indian companies Adani Enterprises and GVK and Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart to dig coal mines in the untapped Galilee Basin and turn Abbot Point on the northeast coast into the world's largest coal port. Australia's conservative government approved plans to dredge 3 million cubic metres of sand for the port expansion last year. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), an independent agency charged with protecting the reef, in January granted a permit to dump the sand about 25 kilometres (15 miles) away from the
February 2024
