YouNesco Seeks Votes for UNESCO on GBR Dumping Plan (Australia)

With UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee meeting to consider the condition of the Great Barrier Reef and other world heritage sites in less than four weeks, YouNesco.org has been created as a new platform to collect votes on Australian government plans to dump dredge spoil in reef waters.

The Fight for the Reef campaign, backed by the Australian Marine Conservation Society and WWF-Australia, aims to take the YouNesco vote tallies to the annual meeting of the World Heritage Committee, commencing in Doha, Qatar on June 15.

Richard Leck from WWF-Australia said UNESCO, the UN body charged with protecting the planet’s World Heritage sites, recently expressed “concern” and “regret” about recent development approvals, including dredging and dumping for the planned Abbot Point coal terminal expansion.

“In the next four weeks, the World Heritage Committee has a critical role to play – it must hold Australian governments accountable for protecting the Reef,” he said.

“UNESCO’s concerns are shared by hundreds of thousands of people across the world from all walks of life. The global ‘YouNesco’ vote is a chance for citizens of the world who care about the Reef to have a say in what happens, and provide their views to discussions normally made behind close doors.”

[mappress]

Press Release, May 27, 2014