This record provides an overview of the scope and research output of NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub Project D7 - "NESP Hub support for Parks Australia’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement System (MERI) for Australian Marine Parks". No data outputs are expected for this project. -------------------- This application is to facilitate Hub engagement with Parks Australia during development and initiation of their Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement (MERI) System for Australian Marine Parks. A key priority for the Marine Parks Branch in the 2019-20 financial year is finalising the Australian Marine Park MERI system. The Marine Biodiversity Hub will play an important role in development and implementation of this system. Hub partners have had previous experience in developing the integrated monitoring framework for the Great Barrier Reef, developing a process for identifying indicators for monitoring Key Ecological Features, and also have collected much of the ecological data that exists within Australian Marine Parks. In discussions with Parks Australia, to ensure the MERI system is optimally integrated with current scientific knowledge and capability, there are a number of tasks and information needs that the Hub is well positioned to provide assistance with, these include: • Review the ‘common language’ proposed for Australian Marine Parks, including natural values and pressures classifications, hierarchies and definitions. • Contribute to the identification of natural values, pressures and human uses within Australian Marine Parks and, where required, provide spatial data layers for incorporation into Parks Australia’s spatial information systems (i.e. Wylie) and other mapping portals. • Review conceptual models developed for each of the key ecosystems across the Australian Marine Park networks. • Review ecological risk assessments for natural values and pressures. • Provide advice on the process and criteria for identifying monitoring and inventory priorities. • Develop detailed conceptual models for areas identified as monitoring priorities. • Contribute to the development of monitoring questions. • Provide advice on the process and selection criteria for identifying appropriate value and pressure indicators (noting that the NESP D6 project is helping to identify appropriate social and economic indicators and measures). • Provide advice on best practice approaches for assessing management effectiveness. • Identify the suitability of existing data sets to support the identified monitoring priorities. • Provide advice on evaluation and reporting including best approaches for using a combination of quantitative data and expert opinion, and to help ensure alignment and consistency across objectives, key evaluation questions and reporting.

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub bridging study - "Support for Parks Australia’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement System for Australian Marine Parks". For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. -------------------- The system of marine parks that spans Australia’s Commonwealth waters is among the largest in the world. The parks play a major role in conserving marine life, supporting commercial and recreational pursuits, and help to protect cultural values significant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Parks Australia has developed management plans for the five regional Australian Marine Park (AMP) networks (North, North-west, South-west, South-east and Temperate East) and the Coral Sea Marine Park. Under each management plan, a science plan sets monitoring and research priorities to guide the collection of information to evaluate management effectiveness, and identify opportunities for improvement. This prioritisation is vital given the low levels of knowledge for most of the AMPs, the technical challenges and high cost of implementing science in vast and remote areas, the finite resources available for park management, and the complexity of the decision-making process. This project provided Parks Australia with scientific and technical information and advice necessary to establish monitoring priorities for natural values and pressures for AMP networks and the Coral Sea Marine Park (CSMP). Taken together with previous work completed under the Marine Biodiversity Hub (projects SS2 and D7), this completes a full national priority list for monitoring in AMPs. The combined research provides a nationally accepted common language to describe natural values and pressures in a science-based approach to combining this information to determine national priorities. The Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement (MERI) system is the first national process of its type globally and is a significant step towards adaptive, integrated and place-based management. Activities undertaken by this project collated and analysed environmental and human use-data for each of the AMP networks and the CSMP. The key data outputs and Final Project Report identify the monitoring priorities in each Network and the CSMP, and help to identify key knowledge gaps to help inform future research priorities. These steps can be repeated through time alongside improvements in the evidence base and our understanding of how ecosystems respond to multi-sectoral activities to achieve continual improvement in management actions and environmental outcomes, Outputs • Digital map layers per AMP network of: (1) Ecosystems (2) Pressures & Activities (3) Cumulative Impacts • Final Technical Report containing maps of Key Natural Values, and of spatial Monitoring Priorities, including a short summary of recommendations for policy makers of key findings [written]