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Environment
World Heritage in Jeopardy: Analysing the UNESCO Decision on the Great Barrier Reef By Katharina Neumann, Deputy Editor, SS Law and Political Science Shimmering schools of fish, vibrant, colourful corals, and peacefully floating turtles – I remember my first time snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef as if it was yesterday. Sadly, a few kilometres south of this underwater wonderland, a very different picture transpired. There were no turtles, only single fish, and most disturbingly, the corals which gave the other spot its sense of magic were bleached and lifeless. - This was my experience in 2018. Today, three years later, more than half of the Great Barrier Reef looks like the latter described wasteland. With rising sea temperatures and increased levels of ocean acidification, climate change has left its mark on the vibrant underwater paradise, as evidenced by the increased incidence of mass coral bleaching. As the rate of global warming is forecasted to increase, conservationists fear that the Reef’s condition will reach an irreversible tipping point after which its biodiversity will fail to recover from the mass mortality of corals. Considering these developments, the recent United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) decision to not classify the Great Barrier Reef as an endangered World Heritage Site is regrettable. Unfortunately, it is an illustration of the persistent ineffectiveness of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention as an international legal tool, which leaves our world’s cultural and natural heritage with little legal protection. The World Heritage Convention 1972, a treaty ratified by 194 countries, is regarded as one of the most significant international legal tools supporting the conservation of the world’s cultural and natural heritage. It connects in a single document the concepts of nature conservation and the preservation of cultural properties, recognising the fundamental need to protect the balance between the two. The Convention was drafted to encourage the identification and preservation of areas with cultural and natural heritage around the world which are of outstanding value to humanity. State Parties pledge to identify potential sites and to protect and preserve their national heritage, expressing a shared commitment to preserve the world’s natural and cultural legacy for future generations. The Convention also empowers the World Heritage Committee, which is composed of 21 State Parties, to inscribe a World Heritage Property on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The condition of such a property must correspond with at least one of the criteria set out in paragraphs 179 and 180 of the World Heritage Convention Operational Guidelines, which include among others “a severe deterioration of the natural beauty.” Overall, the List of World Heritage in Danger is designed to inform the international community of the conditions which threaten the very characteristics for which a property was included in the World Heritage List, and to encourage corrective action. In the most recent controversy concerning the Great Barrier Reef, the Committee notified Australia that due to its deteriorating composition, it sought to classify the Reef as endangered. Most importantly, UNESCO accused Australia of failing to meet key water quality and land management targets, while also criticising the country’s conservative government for its poor climate efforts. UNESCO’s warning was based on a report
