Home > Node 3 – Managing and conserving the marine estate - Final summary report
Node 3 – Managing and conserving the marine estate - Final summary report
| Title | Node 3 – Managing and conserving the marine estate - Final summary report |
| Publication Type | Report |
| Year of Publication | 2012 |
| Authors | Simpson, C, Waples K |
| Pagination | 1-249 |
| Date Published | 03/2012 |
| Institution | Western Australian Marine Science Institution |
| City | Perth |
| Keywords | bidiversity, conservation, geology, human use, Ningaloo, oceanography, WAMSI |
| Abstract | In 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 Designation | Unknown |
