Home > Node 3 – Managing and conserving the marine estate - Final summary report

Node 3 – Managing and conserving the marine estate - Final summary report


Posted on 20 August 2012

TitleNode 3 – Managing and conserving the marine estate - Final summary report
Publication TypeReport
Year of Publication2012
AuthorsSimpson, C, Waples K
Pagination1-249
Date Published03/2012
InstitutionWestern Australian Marine Science Institution
CityPerth
Keywordsbidiversity, conservation, geology, human use, Ningaloo, oceanography, WAMSI
AbstractIn 2005, the WA Government, in recognition of the importance of Ningaloo Reef allocated $5 million for research to support management of Ningaloo Marine Park. This program was incorporated in the broader WAMSI research program in 2006 as Node 3 and attracted significant co-investment, not only from WAMSI partners, but also through the development of the complementary Ningaloo Collaboration Cluster, a program of research funded by the CSIRO Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship. The core funding of $5 million for WAMSI Node 3 and $2.5 million for the Ningaloo Collaboration Cluster was supplemented with co-investment including additional funds and in-kind support from CSIRO, AIMS, Department of Environment and Conservation, Department of Fisheries, Western Australian Museum, University of Western Australia, Curtin University of Technology, Edith Cowan University, BHP-Billiton and the Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre. This collaboration, along with additional external research leveraged the original $5 million of State funding into $36 million in cash and in-kind support between 2005 and 2011. The research program was based on information needs identified in the Management Plan for the NMP and the Muiron Islands Marine Management Area 2005-2015 (CALM 2005) across the following general themes: • improved bio-physical inventories and associated biodiversity assessments; • improved characterisation and predictive capacity of the nature and levels of human usage; • improved characterisation and modelling capacity of key ecological processes (focusing on bio-physical oceanography); • development of cost-effective reef health indicators and monitoring protocols, focusing on coral and fish recruitment, and herbivory; • characterisation and assessment of the ecosystem impacts of human usage, and an assessment of the effectiveness of the park’s zoning for biodiversity conservation; and • development and application of a multiple-use Management Strategy Evaluation framework to assess a range of development scenarios and to evaluate alternative management strategies to meet both conservation and socio-economic objectives. The research program in Ningaloo Marine Park is the largest undertaken in the Indian Ocean Region for coral reef environments and is similar in effort and intensity to research programs undertaken within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, although at a smaller spatial scale. The combined research program of over 150 projects has generated a fundamental (at least 10-fold) improvement in knowledge and understanding of the physical and biological processes that maintain Ningaloo Reef and of the uses, values and impacts of humans that utilise the region.
Refereed DesignationUnknown
AttachmentSize
WAMSI 3 final synthesis report.pdf5.72 MB