Towards integrated coastal management

and marine spatial planning

http://www.griffith.edu.au/environment-planning-architecture/griffith-centre-coastal-

management/research/gold-coast-seaway-smart-release-study2

IUCN Key Directions Statement on

Conserving Australia’s Marine Environment

1. Prioritise marine conservation in the national interest

2. Ensure science-based decision making

3. Establish a national vision with measurable targets and time lines

4. Reinvigorate integrated marine planning

5. Introduce an ‘Investing in Healthy Seas’ Report

6. Continue to build the National Representative System of Marine

Protected Areas (NRSMPA)

7. Recognise and support Indigenous Sea Country Policy and

Management

8. Evaluate the economic benefits of Australia’s marine environment

9. Continue to take a strong international leadership role.

Integration and ecosystems ‘

Marine ecosystems as the entity that is to be integrated.

eg: Convention on Biological Diversity

Ecosystem: all the organisms in a community, together with

the associated environmental factors (living and non-living)

with which they interact (draft Victorian Coastal Strategy 2013)

Ecosystem based management: an approach that seeks to

manage human impacts in an ecosystem, at any scale from

an ocean, to a bioregion, to a local estuary (draft Victorian Coastal

Strategy 2013) .

Rights at the national level

Relevant legislation at the national level

Resources use legislation -

• Fisheries Management Act 1991

• Offshore Minerals Act 1994

• Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006

• Navigation Act 1912

Regulatory legislation

• Environmental Protection (Sea Dumping) Act 1991

• Protection of the Sea (Civil Liability) Act 1981

• Protection of the Sea (Prevention of Pollution from Ships) Act 1983

• Quarantine Act (1908).

Environment Protection & Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

EPBC Act Pt 12– Marine Bioregional Plans http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/marineplans/index.html

Marine biodiversity decline

Marine Biodiversity Decline Working Group identifies five

key threats to biodiversity: (April 2008)

• climate change

• resource use (fishing, aquaculture, dredging, oil and gas

extraction, shipping and tourism)

• land-based impacts

• marine biosecurity (introduced species), and

• marine pollution (chemicals and marine debris)

Coastal marine interface and coastal

shelf waters

National Cooperative Approach to Integrated Coastal Zone

Management (2006) - but still no national coastal policy

Fragmented approach to marine protected areas

No reflection of ecosystem-based needs in conservation

Nationally consistent principles for applying CAR principles

are lacking

Coastal management at the state level

Development control

NSW as an example –

• NSW Coastal Policy 1997: a sustainable future for the NSW Coast

• Regional strategies eg: South Coast Regional Strategy

• Environmental Planning Instruments passed under the

Environmental Planning and Assessment Act

– State Environmental Planning Policy 71 Coastal Protection

– State Environmental Planning Policy 14 – Coastal Wetlands

– Local Environmental Plans – special provisions for development in coastal zones

Prospects for national standardisation?

Coastal Protection legislation – generally limited to beach

preservation, coastal hazards and rising sea levels.

Marine ecosystems

Ecosystems spanning more than one local government

Ecosystems spanning more than one state

New approaches –

• Sediment cells – WA State Coastal Planning Policy July

2013

• Catchment Management Authorities

- recommendation from Independent Scientific Audit of Marine

Parks in New South Wales 2012

- Draft Victoria Coastal Strategy, Sep 2013

Integration

Integrating decision-making across sectoral departments –

horizontal integration

Options amongst legal tools:

Draft Victorian Coastal Strategy:

Shared objectives, maps, features and values

Other:

• Measurable targets and standards

• Compliance and enforcement

• Zoning

Marine spatial planning

• 1998 Australia’s Oceans Policy

• Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

• UNESCO’s Marine Spatial Planning Initiative

• Draft Victorian Coastal Strategy proposes that Coastal

Action Plans – spatial maps

• March 2013 EU Proposal for a Directive of the European

Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework

for maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal

management.

What is MSP?