Australia is breaching commitments to protect the embattled Great Barrier Reef from the effects of land clearing, environmental groups claimed on Monday (June 25) and called on the UN to probe the alleged failures. Canberra has pledged to step up efforts to protect the reef as it reels from mass coral bleaching and coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish, which have proliferated due to pollution and agricultural runoff. But the groups said the federal government had failed to stop a key threat to the World Heritage-list area - the impending bulldozing of large swathes of land in reef catchments.

Austalia failing to protect Great Barrier Reef, say activists. (2018, June 26). Manila Standard, p. B3.