The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) has released its Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan for public consultation. 

The Plan lays out GBRMPA’s plan for sustaining and rebuilding the health of the Great Barrier Reef, with the vision that by the year 2050 the Reef will continue to ‘demonstrate the outstanding universal value for which it was listed as a World Heritage Area’. 

The document looks at pressures on the reef from cyclones, storms, human activity and other forces, and was developed by a Partnership Group including representatives from organisations such as the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, AgForce and the Queensland Farmers Federation and Indigenous organisations such as the Girringun Aboriginal Corporation.

The plan brings together and is underpinned by initiatives such as the Reef Trust program and a new crown-of-thorns starfish control program.

It also addresses current controversial dredging measures, stating that it supports a Queensland Ports strategy that no dredging outside ‘priority port development areas’ that include Abbot Point, Gladstone, Mackay, Townsville and Hay Point, but not Trinity Inlet in Cairns. 

Public consultation for the plan will be open until October 27, and can be made at www.environment.gov.au/marine/great-barrier-reef/long-term-sustainability-plan until that date.