Recently, a report from the Deloitte Access Economics calculated the value of the Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and found that the reef is worth $42 billion in terms of the social and economic assessment. However, the survival of the reef depends on the urgent need to reduce the impact of the bleaching, the climatic change, and other environmental hazards that remain a major concern.
According to the report, the reef contributes about $5 billion annually to the Australian economy and supports more than 64,000 job opportunities to the residents. Identifying the value of the reef can help in appreciating the importance of the natural resource not only to the Australians but also to the entire world.
The study conducted on the bleaching occurrence of the Australian reefs indicates that the corals were damaged by the effect of the underwater warm waves that are gradually the water quality and the coral’s original color.
The study carried out in 1998, 2002, and 2016 by 46 researchers and published in Nature, raised several critical questions on the Australia’s long-standing conservation plan that can sustain its renowned reef, that focuses more on the water quality and neglecting the climate-change impacts.
According to the scientists, the global warming and the persistent mass bleaching of the corals are not a concern for the Australians only, it also applies to the coral reefs worldwide. The Great Barrier Reef has numerous has abundant marine and coral species that comprise of a rich biodiversity making it an exceptional and multifaceted ecosystem worldwide. The reef is even visible from space.
The future of the reef raises major concerns and has prompted uncountable studies that have been carried out for many years. The latest economic report is intended to emphasize the significance of the reef especially on the alarming climate changes that are making the conditions worse. The reef has so far endured two consecutive years of bleaching events in both 2016 and 2017. The last bleaching event occurred in 1998 and 2002.
The future of the Great Barrier Reef is a major concern and the local communities and corporate companies who directly depend on the reef are worried about its ecological function in the near future.
