Thursday, 14 June 2012

Economy vs Ecology: Thoughts on the Proposed Network of Marine Parks in Australia


Politics is something that I am rarely, if ever, interested in, though watching the ABC news this evening was a rare change. The federal government is proposing the establishment of the world’s largest network of marine parks – the size of India - protecting endangered reef ecosystems and, in particular, the rapidly-vanishing Great Barrier Reef. Nationwide costs are expected to be in the hundreds of millions, as the government will be buying out businesses affected by the plans. State governments are still analysing the plans before they make their positions clear. 

The proposed network of national reserves within the ocean

As you might expect from an ecology student, I have absolute support for this project. I am quite impressed that Australia will be a world leader in marine conservation – something that we are usually pretty ordinary at as a nation. The network will extend protection in the Coral Sea and Western Australia, and will limit the gas and oil exploration and fisheries industries:



I want to emphasise that just because I am interested in environmental science, it does not mean that I run naked through forests and strap myself to trees. I am approaching this issue from an entirely non-emotional perspective, I can justify my argument with logic and scientific evidence, and I certainly take into account the industries, businesses and families that would be affected.

The network of Australian reefs, and particularly the barrier reef – the world’s largest reef system - is a biological treasure to be protected. To put it in perspective, reefs make up just 0.25% of the ocean, and yet they constitute 12% of the entire ocean’s biodiversity; they produce the most biomass per unit area of any biological system on Earth. Six of the seven known sea turtle species can found in the Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Barrier Reef: a natural wonder


Ten per cent of the world’s reef systems have been destroyed completely due to human activity. The stability of Australian reef ecosystems are being dramatically affected by over-fishing. Because of the interconnected nature of these systems, removing grazing fish species is essentially the same as removing the reef altogether.

The consequences of losing the Great Barrier Reef are far more serious than the issue of biodiversity, though. The Queensland tourism industry is worth billions of dollars, far more than the worth of the fishing businesses that operate out of the Coral Sea. Additionally, because coral skeletons consist largely of calcium carbonate, reefs are can hold up to 60, 000 times more CO2 than the atmosphere. When coral reefs are destroyed, this CO2 is released into the air. Imagine the impact on climate change when we are dealing with a reef system so big that it is visible from space.

Regardless of the inevitable bickering that this will generate in the parliament, and assuming that the businesses affected by these changes are dealt with carefully and respectfully, I can guarantee that this is a big step in the right direction.


No comments:

Post a Comment