This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub project "Improving socio-ecological understanding of natural values in Australian Marine Parks". No public data outputs will be generated by this project.

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Parks Australia (Australian Government) manage 60 Australian Marine Parks (AMPs) around the country, covering an area of 3.8 million square kilometres, or 43% of all Australian waters. The approach to managing AMPs is set out in eight Management Plans: one for each of the five marine park networks (North, North-west, South-west, South-east and Temperate East) and one each for the Coral Sea Marine Park, Christmas Island Marine Park and Cocos (Keeling) Islands Marine Park. A statutory review of Management Plans for the North, North-west, South-west, Temperate-East networks and the Coral Sea Marine Park is scheduled for 2028. Socio-economic information is needed alongside natural values data to assess management effectiveness and understand how Australians use, value and perceive the marine park system.

This project progressed the use of socio-economic information to support Australian Marine Park management and the 2028 management plan review. It builds on previous NESP research by redeveloping socio-economic benchmarks aligned with Parks Australia’s sentinel park approach and network-scale reporting, and complements NESP-led data synthesis projects (SS2, D7, 1.3, 4.20 and 4.21).

The project redesigned two repeatable national surveys: a knowledge, attitudes and practice boat ramp survey targeting recreational fishers and non-fishers who use Australian Marine Parks, and a general public survey exploring broader community awareness, attitudes and views on management zones. Nine boat-ramp survey locations were selected with Parks Australia to support park- and network-scale estimates of recreational use covering the Coral Sea, and North, North-west, South-west, South-east and Temperate East networks.

The survey design and sampling regime provide a basis for assessing changes in awareness, attitudes and use patterns since the 2019/20 benchmark. Combined with natural values data, these outputs strengthen the Management Effectiveness system and support more integrated reporting on the social, economic and ecological values of Australian Marine Parks.

Outputs

• Responses from recreational user surveys [dataset]. In accordance with National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research, only aggregated outputs will be made publicly available.

• Final technical report [written]