Experts have warned us, saying that efforts should shift to a backup plan of maintaining the ecological function of the reef.

Scientists have told Australian government committee that since the plan doesn’t include steps to counter climate change, any try of recovering is useless. The current strategy to protect the reef (the 2050 long-term Sustainability Plan) is unachievable in light of recent mass bleaching events.

This plan was initially launched in March 2015, with an aim of improving the universal value of the world’s largest coral reef every decade leading up to 2050. The budget is only 2$ billion.

The previously estimated 22 percent death of shallow water corals has now increased to 29 percent, based on the latest figures.

“The concept of ‘maintaining ecological function’ refers to the balance of ecological processes necessary for the reef ecosystem as a whole to persist, but perhaps in a different form,” a spokesperson for Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority explained, “noting the composition and structure may differ from what is currently seen today.”

Just in 2016-2017 we’ve recorded the worlds coral die-off ever recorded

‘The panel’ writes that substantial areas of the Great Barrier Reef and the surrounding ecosystems are experiencing major long-term damage which may be irreversible unless action is taken now.

“The planet has changed in a way that science informs us is unprecedented in human history. While that in itself may be cause for action, the extraordinary rapidity of the change we now observe makes action even more urgent.”

The Reef 2050 Plan needs a significant overhaul: warming oceans, the main contributor behind coral bleaching.

“We can’t be passive bystanders in this. We’re the custodians of the reef and its ecosystem for the world,” told Adam Morton at The Sydney Morning Herald.

 

source: ScienceAlert