PERTH (miningweekly.com) – More than 150 scientists have urged the Australian government to slow down industrial development around the Great Barrier Reef, warning of a “bleak” future if port expansions were not reined in.

Scientists from 33 institutions have signed a statement urging Australia’s leaders to heed the concerns of the international community and place a moratorium on all further port expansions until a plan was in place and the health of the Reef could be guaranteed.

“If we proceed with the current development, the future of the Reef is very bleak, frankly,” said marine biologist Professor Callum Roberts.

“Now is the time to rescue the Great Barrier Reef from development,” he added.

The call came as the World Heritage Committee prepared to meet for its thirty-seventh session on 16 to 27 June, where discussions will include whether the reef should be listed as a World Heritage Site “in danger”, as previously recommended by the environmental arm of the United Nations, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).

The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) CEO Michael Roche said that the scientists’ acknowledgement of present threats to the Reef and advocacy of a cautious approach to future development was on the same page as the resources sector.

“In the face of activist distortions and outright lies, our industry’s only weapons are facts, evidence and science and we will deploy those weapons resolutely and robustly,” Roche said.

“After alarmist predictions from Greenpeace of more than 11 000 coal ships moving through the Great Barrier Reef by 2020, when the most optimistic forecast is around 4 000 and the more likely number is around 3 000, we are definitely up for scientific input and sensible discussion.”

Roche noted that as far as the issue of existing port expansions was concerned, the scientists who signed the statement would have noted the Abbot Point voluntary cumulative-impact assessment (CIA), which has set a national and global benchmark for best practice environmental management of future projects.

“The CIA is made up of 16 independent environmental studies, has been peer-reviewed and exceeds Unesco’s current requirements for developments in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area,” Roche said.

He added that 11 commercial ports between Bundaberg and Bamaga, covering 80% of the eastern Queensland coastline, were included in the Great Barrier Reef’s inscription on the World Heritage register in 1981.

“In fact, Queensland’s minerals and agricultural export industries have been working harmoniously alongside the Reef since its declaration as a Marine Park six years earlier.

“The ports are a working component of the park environment. In 2011/12 the value of exports moved through them was A$40-billion, or 78% of Queensland’s total export volume.”

Roche said that the same ports were essential supply lines for almost one-million people who live alongside the 2 300 km of coastline under Marine Park control.

“Ecologically sustainable development was the guiding principle for the parks declaration 38 years ago, and there is no proposal from industry to go back on that commitment made on behalf of all Australians,” Roche said.

The Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications was currently reviewing the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment Bill, which was aimed at prohibiting developments within and outside existing port areas along the Great Barrier Reef coastline.

The Bill was further aimed at the implementation, from March 20, of a moratorium on the approval of developments impacting on the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area until a strategic assessment was completed and deemed adequate by the World Heritage Committee, as well as prohibiting approval of any developments that did not deliver a net benefit to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.