The Great Barrier Reef is the largest World Heritage Area on Earth. Over 99 per cent of the World Heritage Area is covered by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, but it also includes many islands, cays and intertidal areas protected by State (Queensland) legislation that are not part of the Commonwealth Marine Park.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is the Australian Government agency responsible for managing the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The Queensland Environmental Protection Agency is directly responsible for managing Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef Coast Marine Park (the adjoining State Marine Park) and island national parks.

A number of publications are available on the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area

• Nomination of the Great Barrier Reef by the Commonwealth of Australia for inclusion in the World Heritage List 1981 [Acrobat Format 2776.14KB]
• The Outstanding Universal Value of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area [Acrobat Format 13 632KB]
• State of the Great Barrier Reef online
  
• Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area Framework for Management Report [Acrobat Format 83.88KB].
  

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Facts about the World Heritage Area

The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area is 348 000 km², an area bigger than the United Kingdom, Holland and Switzerland combined. 

It extends from the top of Cape York to just north of Fraser Island, and from the low water mark on the Queensland coast seaward to the outer boundary of the Marine Park, beyond the edge of the continental shelf.

As the world’s most extensive coral reef ecosystem, the Great Barrier Reef is unique in its size and hence is a significant global resource.

The biodiversity and interconnectedness between species and habitats makes the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area one of the richest and most complex natural ecosystems on earth. Whilst coral reef, mangrove and seagrass habitats occur elsewhere on the planet, no other World Heritage Area contains such biological diversity.

The Great Barrier Reef was declared a World Heritage Area in 1981, internationally recognised by the World Heritage Committee for its outstanding universal value. It remains one of only a small number of World Heritage properties worldwide that have been adopted for all four natural criteria:

• Exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance
• Significant geomorphic or physiographic features
• Significant ecological and biological processes
• Significant natural habitats for biological diversity.

View examples of the values and attributes recognised in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

Zoning in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park allows for reasonable use while ensuring overall protection, with conservation being the primary aim.

Seventy bioregions have been identified in the Great Barrier Reef and all are represented in the world’s largest network of ‘no-take’ zones that collectively cover 117 000 km² (or 33 per cent) of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. A further 32 per cent of the entire Marine Park has other limitations on extractive use, and the entire area is protected from activities such as oil drilling or mining.

Further protection of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area is provided by:

• The Australian Government’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which provides additional protection enabling controls on certain activities occurring outside the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area if it is considered those activities may adversely impact any World Heritage values
• Controls over a range of activities occurring in the catchment, with even greater protection occurring over the adjoining Wet Tropics World Heritage Area
  
• Complementary zoning in most of the State waters occurring within the World Heritage Area.

View State Zoning information on the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services website.

View information on management approaches to World Heritage.