The Australian government will spend an additional A$192 million ($129 mln) to improve and protect the Great Barrier Reef’s water quality in order to prevent bleaching events and aid recovery when they do occur.
The ruling Labor party announced the move on Friday, saying poor water quality affects seagrasses, mangroves, and species that rely on the reef.
It follows on from last year’s Landscape Repair Programme, designed to protect the habitat of endangered turtles, birds, and fish.
The government has earmarked a total of A$1.2 billion to protect the Great Barrier Reef, with this latest cash disbursement to be invested into the Clearer Water for a Healthy Reef programme.
The programme will reduce nutrient pollution, a release from Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s office said, and will target priority catchments to reduce nutrient and pesticide runoff. It will also work to reduce the numbers of invasive, damaging species such as feral pigs harming the reef and its surrounds.
“Examples include on-farm precision irrigation, improved nutrient efficiency and floodplain management. This will support farm productivity while improving water quality flow into the reef,” Friday’s release said.
“Funding will also support land managers, Traditional Owners, and environment groups to replant native species in wetlands and undertake engineering works to reinstate wetlands to trap sediment and improve soil condition.”
The government said it would be accepting funding applications in the coming months, but offered no more clarity on timelines or the amounts which could be offered via grant.
“Sediment run-off is one of the biggest threats to the Great Barrier Reef. Poor water quality stops coral from regrowing, kills seagrass, and blocks the sunlight needed for a healthy reef,” Plibersek said.
A major study from the beginning of this month found the pollution load on the reef had increased substantially in recent years.
The Scientific Consensus Statement assessed evidence from 4,000 publications over decades, led by consultancy C2O and funded by the Australian government.
The study on the impact of land-based activity on the reef found that “historical and continuing land management … impair water quality through extensive vegetation degradation, changed hydrology, increased erosion, and expansion of fertilised land uses, urban centres, and coastal developments”.
It also found that pollutant loads from the catchment area to the reef have increased over pre-development loads by 1.4-5 times for fine sediments, and 1.5-3 times for dissolved inorganic nitrogen.
Just under a year ago three Australian companies released a draft method to allow landowners to earn reef credits from grazing land management, in order to improve reef water quality.
Developers GreenCollar, Verterra Ecological Engineering, and AgriProve came up with the new project type. The Queensland government committed A$10 mln towards purchasing reef credits from GreenCollar and Palladium a year ago, if the two were unable to attract other buyers, in a move to kickstart the nascent market.
One reef credit is equal to 1 kilo of dissolved inorganic nitrogen, which is estimated to be equivalent to 538 kilograms of sediment prevented from reaching the reef.
By Helen Clark – helen@carbon-pulse.com
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