Australia is spending billions on the Great Barrier Reef. Will it do any good?

Crown-of-thorns starfish monitoring on the Great Barrier reef. Photograph: Daniel Schultz/Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority

The Great Barrier Reef – the world’s largest coral reef system, covering an area about the size of Germany – always comes with big numbers.

Last month the Australian government pledged another seemingly large figure, $1bn, for conservation and science to be spent over the next nine years and spread along the 2,300km reef.