Ningaloo receives world heritage listing

Not often is there a reason to celebrate with and for the environment. Today is such a day!

The United Nations' cultural body, UNESCO, yesterday gave world heritage status to Western Australia's Ningaloo Coast.

The remote environment is home to sea turtles and an annual gathering of white whales.

Conservation group WWF says the move comes after more than a decade of lobbying to protect Ningaloo reef.

Spokesman Paul Gamblin said the campaign to protect the area from over-development and neglect drew together a diverse group, determined to preserve it.

"World Heritage listing was always a faraway dream," he said.

"Ningaloo is a place loved by the people of the region, and now more than ever before, Ningaloo will inspire the citizens of the world."

Paris-based UNESCO also added Japan's remote Ogasawara Islands and the Kenya Lake System in the Rift Valley to its heritage list.

The 32,000-hectare Kenyan lake district is home to rhinos, giraffes and lions.

The Ogasawara Islands, known in English as the Bonin Islands, are a cluster in the Pacific a thousand kilometres southeast of the Japanese mainland.

They are home to numerous animal species including the Bonin Flying Fox, a critically endangered bat, and 195 endangered bird species.

UNESCO's world heritage committee is meeting until June 29.

It will consider bids by the tiny Pacific archipelagoes of Micronesia and Palau, Barbados, Jamaica, Congo and the United Arab Emirates for their first listings.

World heritage listing is considered an invaluable tool for both tourism and environmental protection.

The Ningaloo Coast is Australia's 19th listing. Other listed sites include the Wet Tropics of Queensland, the Tasmanian Wilderness and Kakadu National Park.

The Ningaloo world heritage area, on the easternmost point of the West Australian coast, covers more than 600,000ha and stretches for more than 200km.

Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke said the listing provided international recognition of the outstanding natural values of a truly spectacular Australian landscape.

"The Ningaloo Coast's striking land and seascape tells a dramatic story about the formation of oceans, movement of continents and changes in our climate,'' he said.

"With more than 200 kilometres of spectacular coral reef off a rugged limestone peninsula, the Ningaloo Coast is a stunning and unique contrast between reef and arid landscape."

From: news.com.au

Contributed by Tim Hochgrebe added 2011-06-27