There are some environmentalists disputing the hopeful report card that Australia is giving itself for the health and future of the Great Barrier Reef.  Officials will attend a UNESCO meeting in Doha next week to insist the reef is on the mend.

Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell says improvements in farming practices reduced pesticides at the reef by 28 percent, and nitrogen by 16 percent, stats that he says show the UNESCO World Heritage Committee that the reef is “now on a pathway to long-term improvement”.

But what’s being touted as progress falls “well short of what is needed to save the Great Barrier Reef,” according to Sean Hoobin of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

You can’t say the Australia wasn’t warned that the reef could lose its status as a World Heritage Site.

The Committee already gave Australia a year to clean up its act to save the reef in last year’s meeting.  Since then, Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s government approved the world’s largest coal port near the reef.  The dredge soil is to be dumped in the reef’s waters.  New coalmines in the Galilee Basin would see a massive increase in ships exporting the filthy black stuff through the reef, increasing the likelihood of accidents and spills.

“While the farming community has started to step up to the plate and address threats to the Great Barrier Reef, the resources industry are now set to undo that good work with destructive plans for dumping in the World Heritage Area,” said Hoobin.