In Australia, the definition, and objectives of partially protected areas (PPAs) in the marine environment are inconsistent across jurisdictions. Some examples of PPAs in Australia include spatial or temporal closures to commercial fishing; ‘special-use’ or ‘multi-use’ zones within marine protected areas; and marine zones where recreational fishing is allowed for specific species.

The implementation of such areas is underpinned by a tension to balance the environmental, economic, and social values of multiple users, and multiple objectives of such areas. In turn, resource managers require systematic knowledge of these diverse user values to consider them in decision making and ensure mutually beneficial outcomes wherever possible.

Within Australia, a wide range and combination of such regulations are applied in both Commonweath and State-managed waters, but there is limited understanding of associated effectiveness and implementation of PPAs relative to their stated goals.

Consultation with key stakeholders in Parks Australia, ABARES, DPIPWE (Tasmania), Parks Victoria, and researchers recently working in Fisheries NSW, highlighted the requirement to create an inventory of current PPAs, and where possible, quantify the multiple benefits (environmental, economic, and social) currently attained through PPAs to provide resource managers with evidence-based tools to implement appropriate marine zoning policies.

Recent analyses have suggested there is no benefit to the introduction of specific types of PPAs along the New South Wales coastline (Turnbull et al. 2021) and we will build on the results of this study to quantitatively understand whether these results are representative for all PPAs in Australian and Commonwealth-managed waters.

This project will review definitions of the main objectives for PPAs across Australia and characterise their implementation across Australia. We will then quantify the extent to which specific types of PPAs achieve their stated goals and use the results to develop evidence-based decision support tools, in conjunction with marine resource managers, to facilitate effective implementation of appropriate marine policies.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a primary tool for conservation and protection of marine habitats and their associated marine life. However, 69% of MPAs are partially open to some form of fishing activity, either recreational or commercial (Turnbull, et al., 2021). In Australia, which has the second largest MPA network in the world, 75% of the total MPA area is partially protected (Roberts et al., 2020). While these partially protected areas (PPAs) provide economic and social benefits, this comes at the cost of reduced conservation benefits. Hence, the implementation of PPAs as a management tool to safeguard habitat and aquatic resources is underpinned by a tension to balance environmental, economic, and social values of multiple users.

Managing this balance requires that resource managers are cognisant of these diverse user values, and have an appropriate management framework to ensure that decision making results in socially optimal outcomes where possible. Decision making that does not considered these multi-user values can result in undesirable trade-offs, adverse environmental impacts, unnecessary complexity, ineffectiveness of management, inefficiency in resource use, social conflict and increased costs.

From the FRDC R&D priorities, access to aquatic resources, guided by good management, is fundamental for the continued delivery of economic and social benefits such as food, income, employment, recreation and cultural identity for all Australians. Optimising these benefits means sharing resources fairly using open and evidence-based processes within the limits of sustainability. As a first step to developing optimal multi-user management, there is a need to first review, and where possible, quantify the multiple values (environmental, economic, and social) that are attained through the implementation of PPAs.

Roberts, K. E., Hill, O., Cook, C. N. (2020). Evaluating perceptions of marine protection in Australia: Does policy match public expectation? Marine Policy 112: 103766
Turnbull, J. W., Johnston, E. L., Clark, G. F. (2021). Evaluating the social and ecological effectiveness of partially protected marine areas. Conservation Biology 35: 921-932.