New Ports Threaten Great Barrier Reef Heritage Site, UNESCO Says
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The Great Barrier Reef should be placed on a list of World Heritage sites in danger if Australia doesn’t limit the building of new coal export terminals and improve water quality, the United Nations said.
New port developments in Queensland state could damage the heritage value of the reef, the world’s largest, the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, said in a report issued in Paris yesterday. Named developments include one at Balaclava Island near Rockhampton, where Glencore Xstrata Plc wants to build a terminal exporting 35 million metric tons of coal a year.