This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub Research Plan 2024 project "Delivery of science to support the implementation of a marine park management effectiveness system". For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata.

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Australian Marine Parks (AMPs) form one of the world’s largest marine park systems, protecting natural, cultural, social and economic values across Commonwealth waters. Parks Australia’s Management Effectiveness system supports adaptive management by assessing whether management arrangements are protecting park values and responding to changing pressures.

This project supported implementation of the Australian Marine Parks Science Plan and delivered key science needs for the 2028 National AMP management plan review. It built on previous Marine Biodiversity Hub and Marine and Coastal Hub work on natural values, pressures, cumulative impacts, monitoring priorities and management effectiveness.

The project delivered four linked outputs:

1) Monitoring protocols for Tier 1 and Tier 2 priority monitoring sites, including site-specific monitoring plans, data and survey method inventories, condition indicators, pressure indicators, and partnership case studies with Traditional Owners.

2) Improved workflows for assessing natural values, activities and pressures, including updates to pressure information, and establishment of data agreements and processes for regular updates.

3) Assessment approaches for emerging industries, using offshore renewable energy adjacent to AMPs as a test case to identify potential impacts such as underwater noise, seabed disturbance, sediment transport, vessel interactions, displacement of existing activities, and other future uses such as decommissioning or carbon storage.

4) Improved system-wide understanding of AMPs through collaboration with Parks Australia, state and territory marine protected area managers and fisheries managers, including opportunities to align data, indicators and management effectiveness approaches.

The outputs provided Parks Australia with a more consistent evidence base for adaptive management, management plan review, monitoring design, pressure assessment and cross-jurisdictional collaboration across Australia’s marine park system.

Outputs

• Updated national-scale spatial datasets of: (1) Natural Values Ecosystems; (2) Key Natural Values; (3) Pressures & Activities; (4) Cumulative impacts; (5) Ecosystem-level risk assessment (absolute risk) [datasets]

• Refined list of monitoring priorities for AMPs [written]

• Monitoring protocols for monitoring priorities [written]

• Final project report [written]