World Heritage Committee Decision On The Great Barrier Reef

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The Great Barrier Reef is one of the world’s most unique and biologically diverse natural environments, made up of a variety of different aquatic ecosystems. Covering an area of 348,000 square kilometres, it is the world's most extensive coral reef system and is so large it can be seen from space.

The United Nations World Heritage Committee has officially kept the Great Barrier Reef off its list of sites "in danger", but Australia remains under pressure to show it is doing enough to protect the reef from environmental harm.

The 45th session of the World Heritage Committee was held in September 2023.  The Committee agreed to adopt the draft decision proposed by UNESCO to not consider the Great Barrier Reef for the List of World Heritage In Danger.

This decision acknowledges the increased action Australia is taking to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

The Committee requested Australia submit a progress report on the implementation of commitments made to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre by 1 February 2024. This follows the previous decision from the World Heritage Committee in July 2021 to reject by consensus a recommendation to inscribe the Great Barrier Reef on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

The World Heritage Committee instead asked Australia to submit an updated report on the conservation status of the Reef (a previous report was submitted on 1 December 2019) and invite an expert monitoring mission to visit the Reef and assess its conservation status.

For more information, check out: https://www.dcceew.gov.au/parks-heritage/great-barrier-reef/world-heritage