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Australia Welcomes Lifting of UNESCO Threat to List Great Barrier Reef as World Heritage in Danger 

A colony of mushroom leather coral grows on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Cairns, Australia October 25, 2019. (Reuters)
A colony of mushroom leather coral grows on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Cairns, Australia October 25, 2019. (Reuters)
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Australia Welcomes Lifting of UNESCO Threat to List Great Barrier Reef as World Heritage in Danger 

A colony of mushroom leather coral grows on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Cairns, Australia October 25, 2019. (Reuters)
A colony of mushroom leather coral grows on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Cairns, Australia October 25, 2019. (Reuters)

The Australian government on Tuesday welcomed a draft UNESCO decision to a lift a threat of downgrading the Great Barrier Reef to an endangered World Heritage site.

The UN cultural agency and the International Union for Conservation of Nature recommended in November of last year that the world’s largest coral reef system be added to the List of World Heritage in Danger due to threats including rising ocean temperatures.

But UNESCO issued an updated a report in Paris on Monday that said it would be appropriate to re-evaluate whether the famed tourist attraction off Australia’s northeast coast fitted the World Heritage in-danger criteria.

The report recommended Australia submit a progress report to the World Heritage Committee by February on its commitments to make environmental improvements.

The World Heritage Committee will consider the draft recommendation in September.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese took the draft UNESCO decision as a vote of confidence in his center-left Labor Party government that was elected last year.

“This confirms my government is working hard to protect the reef, is acting on climate change and that the rest of the world has taken notice,” Albanese told reporters.

Albanese’s government and the previous conservative government had lobbied against UNESCO downgrading the World Heritage status given to the reef in 1981. There are fears that a World Heritage in-danger listing would damage a tourism industry that revolves around the reef and employs more than 64,000 people.

The Labor government was elected in May last year, two months after a 10-day UN fact-finding mission that visited the reef.

The new government argued that UNESCO’s criticisms of government inaction were outdated.

The new government has committed Australia to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 43% below the 2005 level by 2030.

The previous government only committed to a reduction of 26% to 28% by the end of the decade.

Marine ecologist Lissa Schindler said the UNESCO report found that Australia needed to do more to address climate change and water quality threats to the reef, including more ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

“I think that they’ve started off and done a really good job and there’s more to do,” Schindler told Australian Broadcasting Corp. of the government’s performance.

Global warming is the greatest threat to coral reefs around the world. Heat stress causes coral to bleach and bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef in 2016, 2017 and 2020 damaged two-thirds of its coral.

The latest UNESCO report noted data submitted by Australia in September last year showed the highest level of hard coral cover in the northern and central regions of the reef since monitoring began 36 years ago.

It also noted the government had canceled the previous government’s plans to build two major dams in Queensland state that would have affected the reef’s water quality.

In February, Australia for the first time rejected a coal mining application based on environmental law, with the new government citing the open-pit mine’s potential harm to the nearby Great Barrier Reef.

In July 2021, the previous government garnered enough international support to defer an attempt by UNESCO to list the reef as in-danger.

The Great Barrier Reef accounts for around 10% of the world’s coral reef ecosystems. The network of more than 2,500 reefs covers 348,000 square kilometers (134,000 square miles).

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As Baboons Become Bolder, Cape Town Battles for Solutions

A group of baboons move through the main shopping street of Simon's Town outside of Cape Town on October 31, 2024. (AFP)
A group of baboons move through the main shopping street of Simon's Town outside of Cape Town on October 31, 2024. (AFP)
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As Baboons Become Bolder, Cape Town Battles for Solutions

A group of baboons move through the main shopping street of Simon's Town outside of Cape Town on October 31, 2024. (AFP)
A group of baboons move through the main shopping street of Simon's Town outside of Cape Town on October 31, 2024. (AFP)

On a sunny afternoon in Cape Town's seaside village of Simon's Town, three young chacma baboons cause a commotion, clambering on roofs, jumping between buildings and swinging on the gutters.

Enchanted tourists stop to photograph the troop crossing the road. Locals are less impressed: it's a daily scene in the charming village nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and Table Mountain National Park.

About 500 chacma baboons -- among the largest monkey species and weighing up to 40 kilos (88 pounds) -- roam the peninsula south of Cape Town, says the South African National Biodiversity Institute.

And as human development pushes up the mountain into their natural habitat, the animals are increasingly entering plush properties to forage in gardens and take the pickings from the bins. Some manage to sneak into houses where they can wreak havoc.

Many locals are fond of the creatures, giving them pet names and following their daily adventures on social media.

But others are increasingly frustrated.

"They've become so bold now. They're more domesticated than they should be," said Duncan Low, 60, who runs an ice cream shop.

The intruders have even started raiding kitchens and grabbing food from plates in restaurants. "They're on a sugar and fast-food rush," Low said.

In 2021, the city put down a notorious alpha-male monkey who had terrorized residents with more than 40 raids for food in rubbish bins, from lawns and porches, sometimes entering homes while people were inside.

- Monkey management -

Tension between humans and baboons is "the highest it's ever been", said ecologist Justin O'Riain, who directs the Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa at the University of Cape Town.

A baboon on the edge of a wild and an urban area is "the most difficult animal in the world to manage", O'Riain said.

"They are strong, they can climb... and they can learn from each other: there's no landscape that they can't conquer."

As human settlement of the Cape has expanded, the baboons have been "pushed higher and higher up the mountain" where foraging conditions are harder, O'Riain added.

The lush gardens that people have built, with fruit trees and swimming pools, are tempting attractions.

The City of Cape Town, in partnership with park authorities, has for years run a program to manage the marauding monkeys that relies on teams of baboon monitors.

They employ a primarily non-lethal approach, O'Riain said.

However, some techniques, such as firing paintball guns to keep troops away or culling a particularly problematic animal, have come under fire.

Amid an increasingly emotional outcry, vociferous campaigner Baboon Matters announced court action against the city and parks authorities in May for failing to implement what it considers more acceptable control measures, such as baboon-proof fencing and bins.

Facing criticism and funding limits, the authorities said the baboon management program would be wound down by the end of the year as they investigate other "more sustainable urban solutions".

It will however remain in place through December -- a particularly busy month for tourists -- but with fewer rangers, it said.

"We're going to lose our first line of defense," O'Riain said, with more baboons already entering urban areas often at risk to their lives.

- Deaths highest in 10 years -

Thirty-three baboons were known to have died between July 2023 and June 2024, the highest number in 10 years, city authorities say.

Nearly half the deaths were caused by human factors, including shooting with pellet guns, collisions with vehicles and dog attacks.

Coexistence with baboons should come with "a degree of human compliance", starting with managing food waste, conservation activist Lynda Silk, head of the Cape Peninsula Civil Conservation group, said.

"We don't need to be in competition with our natural resources: there can be ways that we can manage our lifestyles to minimize the negative impacts," she said.

For O'Riain, the only viable solution to the baboon battle is to erect fencing in certain areas that is made up of electric wiring and underground mesh to prevent the animals from digging underneath.

A prototype installed 11 years ago had shown great success, with almost no animals entering the area, he said. A 2023 report already suggested where the fencing should be placed.

"Baboons can come and forage right up to the edge of the fence and no one will disturb them," said O'Riain.

"It's a completely peaceful interaction, a win-win for people and for baboons."