United Nations conservation agency UNESCO has recommended the Great Barrier Reef not be placed on the World Heritage "in danger" list.

It is a significant reprieve for the Queensland and Federal governments, with an adverse listing being potentially disastrous for the tourism industry.

However, the draft decision from UNESCO has flagged concerns about the poor outlook for the reef and notes the World Heritage Committee should review any lack of progress in 2017.

The 21 nations on UNESCO's World Heritage Committee will decide whether to accept the decision at a meeting in Germany in a few weeks.

"It is recommended that the World Heritage Committee request that [Australia] submit an update on [the progress of the Long Term Sustainability Plan] progress for review by the World Heritage Centre and IUCN and that if the anticipated progress is not being made this should also be reviewed by the Committee at its session in 2017," the draft decision reads.

"It is essential that the [Long Term Sustainability Plan] delivers its anticipated results in order to confirm that the property does not face ascertained or potential danger to its [Outstanding Universal Values].

"It is recommended the World Heritage Committee welcome the progress achieved by [Australia] towards a [significant] response.

"Measures that represent significant progress in responding to key World Heritage Committee requests include commitments toward restoring water quality ... restricting major port development in and adjoining the GBR World Heritage Area ... [Australia reversing] its original decision to dump capital dredge material from Abbot Point inside the property and a permanent ban on dumping of dredged material from all capital dredging projects within the property."

International scrutiny a very valuable thing: Hunt

Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt welcomed the decision, saying it recognised the unprecedented work by the Federal and Queensland governments to address concerns and protect the reef.

Mr Hunt said investment in the reef's protection added up to $2 billion over the next 20 years.

"So in terms of the international response, this is an overwhelming endorsement, but we want to make sure that we keep the pressure up on ourselves and inviting a little bit of long-term international scrutiny, I think, is a very valuable thing," he said.

Mr Hunt said the UN had recognised Australia's ban on the dumping of dredge material on the reef.

"The world has recognised that Australia has made huge steps in the last 12 months. More to be done, but this is a good result for the reef, it's a good result for Australia," he said.

Queensland Environment Minister Steven Miles said it was recognition Australia's plan for the reef would work, despite the threat of climate change.

"The really good news here is that the scientists at the World Heritage Committee, the scientists at the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) have looked at our plan and said this will protect and improve the Great Barrier Reef," he said.

The WWF's Richard Leck also welcomed the result but said the draft decision indirectly suggested the reef could be placed on the "in danger" list in the future.

"It puts Australia on probation to say if you do not do what you've said and adequately fund what you've promised, then you'll have to come back before the committee and the reef is most likely going to be listed "in danger" at that point," he said.

Greenpeace Australia said UNESCO had signalled the Great Barrier Reef was in "deep trouble" and was closely watching the Government's future plans for the site, including the Abbot Point coal port expansion.

Chief executive David Ritter said the government had 18 months to turn things around.

"UNESCO has very clearly signalled that our beautiful Great Barrier Reef continues to be in deep trouble," Mr Ritter said.

"They've clearly signalled that it's not safe in Tony Abbott's hands, and they've put the government really on probation."

The Queensland Resources Council's Michael Roche supported the draft decision but said the Government's adoption of stringent coastal development rules would have an economic cost.

"Because they will inevitably mean that some port development won't be able to occur and we won't be able to keep pace with global demand, but that's the price that Australian governments have felt that it was worth making to satisfy the World Heritage Committee," he said.

Reef 2050 report warns climate change is biggest long-term threat

One of the World Heritage Committee's key requirements was to create a Long Term Sustainability Plan for the reef.

The Reef 2050 report warns climate change is the biggest long-term threat facing the reef, with warming oceans leading to coral bleaching.

As more greenhouse gases enter the atmosphere, the oceans become more acidic stunting the growth of coral.

Climate change is also predicted to increase the frequency and intensity of storms which are hugely damaging to the reef.

More immediate pressures include water quality, which has declined due to nutrient and sediment run-off from agricultural production.

This can lead to coral smothering and disease.

The Federal Government has committed $140 million to the Reef Trust, which will invest in projects to improve water quality and coastal habitat as well as tackling crown-of-thorns starfish.

The Queensland Government also pledged $100 million over five years to be spent on projects to improve the reef.

The Federal Government estimates that $2 billion will be spent by state and commonwealth governments on protection, management and research into the reef over the coming decade.

World Heritage Committee raises coastal development concerns

In 2012, a UN-led Reactive Monitoring Mission visited the reef, prompted by concerns dredging in Gladstone off central Queensland was damaging the reef's world heritage status.

That year, the World Heritage Committee raised "great concerns" about the "unprecedented" scale of coastal development proposed within and affecting the reef.

"[The committee] requests the State Party to not permit any new port development or associated infrastructure outside of the existing and long-established major port areas within or adjoining the property," its 2012 report on the reef said.

"And to ensure that development is not permitted if it would impact individually or cumulatively on the Outstanding Universal Value of the property."

Tensions arising from such development reached a peak in late 2013 to early 2014 when the Federal Government and Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority approved the dumping of three million cubic metres of dredge spoil in the marine park for the expansion of a coal terminal at Abbot Point.

Environmentalists were outraged and so too were many World Heritage Committee nations, lashing out at the state and federal governments in UNESCO's most recent annual meeting.

"We acknowledge with concerns the range of threats facing this exceptional example of [Outstanding Universal Value]," the Jamaican delegation said.

"Based purely on the evidence referenced by the experts, it is clear that the integrity of the site is at risk.

"We would wish to encourage the State Party [Australia] to urgently review its recent decisions regarding development projects."

And Australia did.

It found a land-based option to dump the dredge spoil and an agreement between the Queensland and Federal governments effectively banned capital dredging disposal inside the World Heritage Area.

'Whole of government' lobbying effort

Now that UNESCO has released its draft decision, it will be up to the 21 World Heritage Committee nations whether to adopt it at a meeting in around a month's time.

The Federal Government has been lobbying hard to convince them not to list the reef in danger.

In Senate estimates earlier this month the Department of Environment revealed that Government ministers and bureaucrats had spent more than $100,000 visiting the WHC nations.

The Government has also been flying delegations and foreign journalists out to visit the reef.

In Senate estimates earlier this year, Peter Varghese, the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, said there was a "whole-of-government" effort to prevent the reef being placed on the in danger list.

"We are running a major campaign to prevent a listing of the Great Barrier Reef as being in danger," he said.

"There have been a number of assertions made about the management of the Great Barrier Reef and about its vulnerability that are not grounded in fact and which need to be rebutted.

"We have tasked several of our heads of mission ... to make that clear to the investment community."