Food and Environment

Amrita Pudasaini Bajagai The Great Barrier Reef   (GBR) is the iconic Australian reef in northern Queensland, which is world’s largest reef, and has been designated as a World Heritage Site in 1981 [ 1 ] .   This area is called the financial lifeline of the coastal communities as millions of tourists visit this area every year for tourism and recreational activities [ 2 ] . A significant number of people in the GBR area are resource dependent to the reef, particularly served by the tourism industry [ 3 ] . Lately, there has been lots of attention about the degradation of the corals in the GBR region. Latest study reported the large scale bleaching of the reefs in the area particularly north of Cairns [ 4 ] . The reef region is in the verge of severe environmental, economic and social challenges like uncontrolled fishing, plastic waste, unplanned coastal development, overload of infrastructure etc., which need to be addressed by whole of users approach, education and proper r