Great Barrier Reef a $42 billion asset 'too big to fail'

Australia's under-pressure Great Barrier Reef is an asset worth Aus$56 billion (US$42 billion) and as an ecosystem and economic driver is "too big to fail," a study said on June 26.

The World Heritage-listed reef is the largest living structure on Earth and its economic and social value was calculated for the first time in the Deloitte Access Economics report commissioned by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

Using economic modelling, it said the reef, bigger than Britain, Switzerland and the Netherlands combined, was worth Aus$29 billion to tourism, supporting 64,000 jobs.

The "indirect or non-use" value, people that have not yet visited the reef but know it exists, was estimated at Aus$24 billion, with recreational users such as boaters making up the rest.

The study, based on six months' analysis, comes as the reef suffers an unprecedented second straight year of coral bleaching due to warming sea temperatures linked to climate change.

It is also under pressure from farming run-off, development and the crown-of-thorns starfish, with the problems compounded this year by a powerful cyclone pummeling the area.

Great Barrier Reef Foundation director Steve Sargent said the study showed that no single Australian asset contributed as much to international perceptions of "Brand Australia."

"At $56 billion, the reef is valued at more than 12 Sydney Opera Houses," he said.

"This report sends a clear message that the Great Barrier Reef - as an ecosystem, as an economic driver, as a global treasure - is too big to fail." 

Commenting in the report, US presidential candidate turned conservationist Al Gore said the study was a "much needed, holistic view of the incredible economic value and...