Acting now for the future of our Reef

$2 Million funding injection into reef conservation

Rowan Anderson

Journalist

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Great Reef Census expedition out to the Swain Reefs IMAGE: Johnny Gaskell

Under threat but beautiful.

Jump in the water and the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef will still take your breath away.

One of our nation’s biggest attractions drawing two million visitors each year as well as employing more than 64,000 workers and contributing $5.2 billion annually to the economy – the Reef is one of a kind. 

Yirrganydji Rangers Brian and Gavin on board the Dreamtime Vessel IMAGE: Brad Fisher Ikatere Photography

Far more than a holiday destination it holds great cultural and historical significance to Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Setting the benchmark for the world

The Reef serves as a barometer for the well-being of the whole planet as well as being one of the first major ecosystems to suffer from the devastating effects of climate change.

Spanning 344,000 kilometres it is home to 25% of our nations marine life and the coral found dates back 20,000 and 120,000 years old.

Far more than a holiday destination it holds great cultural and historical significance to Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Cotton On chips in for Reef preservation

Funded by the Cotton On Foundation an announcement was recently made on a group of initiatives worth $2 million dollars in recognition of World Oceans Day last week.

The funding was launched alongside a three-year project for reef conservation and will see the rollout of beneficial projects and initiatives kicking off in August including the re-seeding of millions of coral larvae and educating tourists on conservation and Traditional owner perspectives.

"Projects such as this are a step towards stabilising and improving the future survival of our reef,"as the CEO of Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef, Andy Ridley told Newsport.

Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef is thrilled to announce the three-year, $2 million project called The Reef Cooperative, funded by the Cotton On Foundation. The Reef Cooperative is going to bring very practical conservation into Yirrganydji Sea Country, beginning at Hastings Reef off Cairns.”

Connection to their land continues

Seventy Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Traditional Owner groups have continuing relationships with the Great Barrier Reef – with these individuals entrenched within ensuring the success of these initiatives.

“The current story of the reef is very nuanced, there are reefs that are pristine, and some that are being hit hard by climate change. This project takes many of the incredible reef conservation programs happening on the Great Barrier Reef and applies them on one specific pilot site, stewarded by the Yirrganydji Land and Sea Rangers,” Ridley said.

“The project is going to focus on two particular ways of doing reef restoration, the first is by using the MARRS reef stars which stabilise reef rubble so coral can grow on it. The second is coral larval reseeding, which has been trialled off Cairns before. These will be implemented on Hastings Reef and then expanded beyond that together with innovative organisations working as part of the Reef Cooperative including James Cook University, Mars, GBR Biology and the Yirrganydji rangers.

“Our goal for The Reef Cooperative is to deliver a scalable pilot program that we can then take to other reefs across the Great Barrier Reef and then across the world.

“Without the support of organisations like Cotton On Foundation and all the partners that are working on this, collaborative reef restoration programs like this can't happen.

“We have to deal with climate change on a global level, but we also have to massively scale up our conservation efforts, especially in places like the Great Barrier Reef. Projects like this are critical for the next decade.”

The time is now for climate action

The time has arrived for action to finally be taken to combat the effects of climate change on our natural wonder of the world and as Andy Ridley told us we need to act now.

“We're in the age now of getting over the talking and getting into the doing and that requires mass participation in conservation.

“The actions of people across the planet will define the future of the Great Barrier Reef.”

Citizens team capturing Great Reef Census surveys in the Far Northern GBR IMAGE: Matt Curnock
Citizens of the GBR CEO Andy Ridley IMAGE: Nicole McLachlan for Citizens for the GBR

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