<P> Royal Commissions disallowed oil drilling in the Great Barrier Reef, in 1975 the Government of Australia created the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and prohibited various activities . The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park does not include the entire Great Barrier Reef Province . The park is managed, in partnership with the Government of Queensland, through the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to ensure that it is used in a sustainable manner . A combination of zoning, management plans, permits, education and incentives (such as eco-tourism certification) are employed in the effort to conserve the reef . </P> <P> In 1999, the Australian Parliament passed the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which improved the operation of national environmental law by providing guidance about regional biodiversity conservation priorities . The marine bioregional planning process came from the implementation of this law . This process conserves marine biodiversity by considering the whole ecosystem a species is in and how different species interact in the marine environment . </P> <P> There are two steps to this process . The first step is to identify regional conservation priorities in the five (currently) different marine regions . The second step is to identify marine reserves (protected areas or marine parks) to be added to Australia's National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas . Like protected areas on land, marine reserves are created to protect biodiversity for generations to come . Marine reserves are identified based on criteria written in a document created by Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council called "Guidelines for establishing the national representative system of marine protected areas", also known as just "the Guidelines". These guidelines are nationally recognised and implemented at the local level based on the Australian policy for implementation outlined in the "Goals and Principles for the Establishment of the National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas in Commonwealth Waters". These policies are in place to make sure that a marine reserve is only added to the NRSMPA after careful evaluation of different data . </P> <P> The priorities for each region are created based on human and environmental threats and the Marine Bioregional Plans are drafted to address these priorities . To assess different region's priorities, three steps are taken, first, a bioregional profile is created, second, a bioregional plan is drafted, and third, the plan is finalised . After the plan is finalised, activity in different bioregions may become limited based on particular threats an activity may pose . </P>

Map of where the great barrier reef is