The Great Barrier Reef has appeared in news reports from time to time in recent years, except global warming, transitional fishing, environmental pollution cause aggravate of coral bleaching; transitional tourism damage to ecology are also topics in the news. It has attracted the attention of environmentalists around the world, and has also attracted tourists to Australia to explore one of the attractive places in this country. Since it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981, it seems that it has not been properly protected. UNESCO recommended that it be listed as a List of World Heritage in Danger in 2015, 21 and 22, but it was successfully stopped by Australia every time. However, the damage to the barrier reef has not stopped, and large-scale bleaching will occur again in 2024.
There are three large barrier reefs in the world that are included in the World Heritage Site list, two of which are located in Oceania in the southwest Pacific Ocean, namely the Great Barrier Reef of Australia and the New Caledonian Barrier Reef;
the last one is the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS) in the Caribbean Seas of Mexico, Belize and Guatemala respectively, this barrier reef was registered as World Natural Heritage Site in 1996 but listed as a List of World Heritage in Danger from 2009 to 2018.
This time I will only introduce New Caledonian Barrier Reef, which occupies the entire long and narrow waters of north-central New Caledonia, extending north from the northeast of the main island (Grande Terre) to Belep (archipel des Bélep). It also includes Isle of Pines (Île des Pins) and Ouvéa and Beautemps-Beaupré atolls (Ouvéa et Beautemps-Beaupré) which are in the 40 kilometres southeast of the main island, and 223 kilometers north of the main island Entrecasteaux Reefs (Récifs d’Entrecasteaux). New Caledonian Barrier Reef is the longest of 3 heritage site barrier reefs, but it is second only to the Great Barrier Reef. Compared with the Great Barrier Reef, her attention seems to be as low as that of the French territory in the Pacific, so much so that it was only listed as a World Natural Heritage in 2008. Off-topic, New Caledonia held four independence referendums in 1987, 2008, 20 and 21, but in the end it still chose to stay in France as an overseas collective. However, the turmoil caused by the election reform in 2024 made New Caledonia upgrade to an independent country in 2025. but she is still attached to France.
The New Caledonian Barrier Reef registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on July 7, 2008, was soon planned to issue stamps in time for December of the same year. The semi-irregular souviner sheet introduced six sites that make up the barrier reef. From north to south they are Entrecasteaux Reefs and North East Coast (Zone côtière Nord-Est) which are far from the main island; North Lagoon District (Grand Lagon Nord), West Coast District (Zone côtière Ouest) and South Lagoon District(Grand Lagon Sud) located on the main island, also Ouvéa and Beautemps-Beaupré atolls to the east of the main island, the main picture of stamps are 6 species in the area.
Since 2009, the post office of New Caledonia has issued a stamp every year with New Caledonian Barrier Reef, although the species on these 6 stamps are the same as those on the 2008 souviner sheet, all of their background also depicts the attractive natural characteristics of the area meanwhile. Since I am only interested in bird stamps,
I only bought one of these 6 full series of Entrecasteaux Reefs issued in 2013 and the Mangroves stamp of the previous year. Entrecasteaux Reefs is an uninhabited deep-water reef 223 kilometres north of the main island of New Caledonia. To be precise, this coral reef, also includes the west coast of the main island and the Great Barrier Reef of Australia belong to the Coral Sea (Mer de Corail) area, total area is 479,1 km² to be second largest sea in the world. Except Australia and New Caledonia, the surrounding area of the sea also touches Oceania countries such as Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuvatu, and there are many uninhabited islands now under the jurisdiction of the Norfolk Islands.
The Entrecasteaux Reefs was discovered by amiral Antoine Bruni d’Entrecasteaux in 1792 and was later named with his name. Although it is uninhabited, the shore was covered with mangroves and birdshits as it was on the migration path of migratory birds. In recent years, the mangroves on the main island have been destroyed by human activities, and sediments have flooded the coral reefs.
New Caledonian Barrier Reef has recently become an emerging tourist destination, attracting only tourists from France and nearby countries because of its low popularity and few direct flights. The animals here like Dugong and Green turtle are endangered species, Fortunately the humpback whale, 2 stamps on the above envelope shown Austropacific Masked Booby and Eastern Reef Heron are least-concern species
