Australia's Great Barrier Reef has been valued at 56 billion Australian dollars (42.44 billion USA dollars) on Monday, according to a new report into the economic benefits provided by one of the country's most iconic tourism destinations.
"As the largest living structure on earth and one of the world's most complex and diverse natural ecosystems, the Great Barrier Reef is justifiably considered priceless and irreplaceable".
A Deloitte Access Economics report, released on Monday, has for the first time linked 64,000 jobs to the reef, including 33,000 in Queensland in 2015/16.
Unprecedented back-to-back coral bleaching events have affected two-thirds of the reef in the past two years. Frequent boating accidents and powerful cyclones aren't helping matters, either.
In 2015, UNESCO almost put the Great Barrier Reef on the endangered list. Recent projections indicate that climate-related loss of reef ecosystem services will total US$500 billion per year or more by 2100, with the greatest impacts felt by people who rely on reefs for day-to-day subsistence. "The livelihoods and businesses it supports across Australia far exceeds the numbers supported by many industries we would consider too big to fail".
The report assessed the full economic, social and iconic brand value and found that the biggest contributor was tourism, which is worth $29 billion.
The survey was conducted among 1,500 Australian and worldwide respondents from 10 countries with two-thirds of the survey respondents saying they were prepared to pay to protect the reef, based on its importance to the planet.
Tourist trap: 8ft blue shark terrifies holidaymakers in Mallorca
First aiders launched a search for the fish but abandoned their hunt after about an hour when they failed to find any sign of it. The shark managed to swim back out to sea, but was later spotted in shallow water on a beach along the coast in Can Pastilla.
Deloitte Access Economics partner and lead report author John O'Mahony said with the reef under threat the report was a major step in looking to value nature's significance in monetary terms.
Former US vice-president Al Gore, who is headlining July's Ecocity World Summit in Melbourne, said the report was a timely and holistic view of the economic value provided by the reef. Potential solutions being eyed included the development of coral nurseries, boosting the culling of crown-of-thorns starfish, as well as intensifying monitoring systems and priority sites for restoring corals.
Key to the talks was the need to slash greenhouse gas emissions to prevent warming sea temperatures.
But federal Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg says Adani's planned mine is "300km inland.in a dry, dusty part of Queensland" and if Australia doesn't help meet India's energy needs, another country will do it with dirtier coal and reap all the economic benefits.
The Great Barrier Reef, encompassing an area equivalent to that of Japan, employs people in the tourism, fishing, recreational activity and scientific research industries.
"Australia is taking strong action to address the global threat of climate change having ratified the Paris Agreement which will see Australia reduce its emissions by 26 to 28 percent".
Comments