Between pride and despair: Stories of Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef and Wet Tropics Rainforests

Abstract

The Great Barrier Reef and Wet Tropics Rainforests occupy a crucial but con fl icted space in Queensland ’ s history: once symbols of conservation triumph, they are fast becoming portents of ecological collapse. Until relatively recently, these reef and rainforest ecologies were icons of a rich natural and cultural heritage that has brought pride to Queensland and to the nation at large, while our First Nations communities can celebrate relationships to northern reefs and rainforests that span at least 60,000 years. The ancient Gondwana rainforests of the Wet Tropics match the biodiversity of the Great Barrier Reef, with both having been recognised for their ‘ outstanding universal value ’ in UNESCO World Heritage Listings. Stories have repeatedly celebrated their beauty and biodiversity, and their rich and complex associations with the local peoples and communities that live there. Yet those inspiring stories of the Great Barrier Reef and Wet Tropics Rainforests have now taken a dire turn as the emergence of severe threats to the health of both ecosystems threatens death and demise. The damage caused by mass coral bleaching events, acidi fi cation and super-cyclones is paralleled by deforestation, fi re and species extinctions within the rainforests. Rising land and sea temperatures are proving to be ecologically devastating for both these wondrous ecosystems and equally grim in their associated social, cultural and political rami fi cations. Yet we editors have been pleased to observe that the contributors to this special edition have still been able to fi nd some sources of inspiration and hope within these calamitous outlooks. In this of Review , invited the contributors re fl ect the Great Barrier Reef and/or Wet Tropics, their relationship with people and places nearby further a fi eld. not found the urgency of the Barrier ’ s current the contributions in that direction. interwoven rainforests is explicit in some in scholarly analyses and personal re fl ections,