Project number: 2021-064
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $280,411.00
Principal Investigator: Louisa Coglan
Organisation: Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
Project start/end date: 31 Jul 2022 - 28 Feb 2024
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Rac Qld
Rac Nsw
Rac Cmwth
Marine Park
Fisheries Management

Need

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.

Objectives

1. Undertake a review of existing literature on values of partially protected areas, including a review of different frameworks in which the environmental, social and economic values can be incorporated for management decision making
2. Assess the key environmental, social and economic values and their trade-offs in the use of partially protected areas, based on two case studies
3. Identify how understanding these values can assist management decision making when implementing marine parks more broadly in Australia

Final report

Authors: Louisa Coglan Ella Dewilde Nipuni Abeysiriwardena Amar Doshi Isabel Haro Sean Pascoe Toni Cannard Marjolene Roos Gabriela Scheifele Rob Kenyon Piers Dunstan
Final Report • 2025-09-03 • 3.23 MB
2021-064-DLD.pdf

Summary

The project examines the ecological, economic and social costs and benefits that have been generated through the use of Partially Protected Areas (PPAs). The project is undertaken by a multidisciplinary team from QUT, Natural Capital Economics and CSIRO. The project reviews Australian and international experiences with the use of PPAs and fisheries closures, and considers how an understanding of these benefits and costs can inform management of future PPAs through two case studies developed through workshops with Marine Park managers at the state and Commonwealth level.