National Sustainable Oceans And Coasts Strategy

Media release – Australia Institute Tasmania, 29 July 2021

Marine and coastal leaders call for national strategy to protect oceans

The 15th National Coast to Coast Conference delegates have called for the Australian Government to adopt a National Sustainable Oceans and Coasts Strategy. The strategy provides a blueprint for change that Australia’s oceans and coasts need, and outlines the steps needed to transform how we govern and protect oceans and coasts across Australia.

Among the recommendations in the blueprint is a call for a national agency to coordinate ocean and coastal governance across all tiers of government. Other recommendations include:

Empower Indigenous leadership
Build resilient communities
Decarbonise the blue economy
Collaborative governance

“Australia’s oceans and coasts are experiencing immediate and increasing pressure from threats such as climate change, overfishing, inappropriate coastal development, land-based pollution, marine debris, impacts of aquaculture and habitat destruction,” said Eloise Carr, director of the Australia Institute Tasmania.

“Despite the economic, environmental and cultural importance of Australia’s oceans and coasts, current marine governance practices are problematic because they lack integration across the three tiers of government and the catchment-coast-marine continuum.

“Without a more comprehensive approach, Australian industries which rely on a healthy ocean will begin to suffer and Tasmania’s economic interests as a whole will suffer in the short to medium term,” Ms Carr said.

“This conference of leading academics and practitioners has called for action from the Australian Government to adopt this strategy and implement its recommendations,” said Emeritus Professor Nick Harvey, co-chair of the Expert Working Group for the strategy.

The Australian Academy of Science has convened leaders across expertise, sectors, and the nation to prepare the National Sustainable Oceans and Coasts Strategy 2021-2030 to advance the sustainability agenda and forge pathways to a thriving future. The strategy represents a cross-sectoral plan for achieving sustainable oceans and coasts across Australia by 2030. It provides a thoughtful and innovative way forward for our federal and state governments and other leaders across the nation, as well as a roadmap for implementing our vision for healthy oceans and coasts for a just and environmentally sustainable future.

The Coast to Coast Conference is the Australian Coastal Society’s biennial national coastal management conference. It brings together a diverse community of organisations and individuals involved in Australia’s coastal zone, including government representatives, researchers, natural resource managers, community organisations, consultants and industry members.

The full Sustainable Oceans and Coasts Strategy 2021-2030 is available here: https://www.futureearth.org.au/publications/sustainable-oceans-and-coasts-strategy

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Australians love our ‘blue ribbon’

Australians hold a deep affinity for our oceans and coasts. These areas are beautiful, diverse, complex places that work in synchronicity with each other. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have known this for thousands of years, speaking of Land and Sea Country as an interconnected whole, rather than as separate ecosystems. This is what we mean when we speak of Australia’s blue ribbon: the connections from estuaries to coasts to oceans that encircle and enrich the country. Recognising oceans and coasts as a single interconnected system presents extraordinary opportunities for the betterment of the nation through a sustainable future.

An urgent need for change

Oceans and coasts support our communities and our economy, but they are under immediate and increasing threat from a number of compounding and overlapping pressures, including climate change, pollution, invasive species, habitat and biodiversity loss, and a growing population catalysing coastal development and greater infrastructure needs. This strategy recognises that our natural environment, and the changes it is experiencing, will play a central role in forcing sustainability transitions. The time frame in achieving this change is urgent.

Australia can lead

This strategy calls for Australia’s leadership in enabling healthy oceans and coasts for a just and environmentally sustainable future for all. Such leadership can provide input into the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The goals, though global, can provide national targets for sustainable development. More than this, Australia’s explicit recognition of sustainable oceans and coasts, during this United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainability, presents us with an enormous opportunity to lead, not only for the national interest and benefit, but also on the international stage.

In leading, it is important that Australia is proactive. This strategy represents a bottom up, sectors-upported plan, supported by community groups, industry and business, all levels of government, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and managers across Country, the research sector, national peak bodies, the non-profit sector, and civil society. It provides a pathway to achieving transformative change in how we treat our ocean and coastal systems. It is cognisant of and complementary to other activities, including those of the National Marine Science Committee and activities being undertaken as part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. It can also service international commitments in line with the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy.

Integrated action for the blue ribbon: resilient coastal communities and the blue economy

To achieve sustainable oceans and coasts for Australia, two areas will be critical to address: the blue economy and resilient coastal communities. A blue economy looks to create a thriving society via sustainable and equitable use of coastal and marine resources, including food production, energy generation, aquaculture, tourism, and transport. These industries are vibrant and growing in their use of the blue ribbon, and can be harnessed to strengthen our economy through sustainable means. A blue economy can also support thriving coastal communities, which are facing increasing threats from coastal inundation, fires, floods, and cyclones. Australia needs resilient communities that are able to withstand, absorb, adapt to, and recover from the effects of the many stresses and hazards they will face in a rapidly changing environment. Together, these focus areas can ensure the sustainable delivery of the vision of a vibrant blue ribbon, now and into the future.

Centring Australia’s First Peoples

We listened carefully to a number of Australia’s First Peoples throughout this process – from initial imaginings through to the creation of this strategy. Knowledge perspectives that sit outside of traditional Western science paradigms can provide critical knowledge that can be missed by scientific method, and while we always need scientific endeavours, our approach to centre First Peoples in this strategy is purposeful.

We need all knowledge to halt environmental degradation, reverse where possible negative impacts, anticipate appropriate adaptive and resilience measures, and proactively shape and secure alternate economies.

Now is the time for Australia to seize the moment

As a nation of innovators, we are well placed to lead, but support systems are needed to harness this incredible resource. A national agency, responsible for shaping and delivering initiatives that support sustainable oceans and coasts, is urgently needed. A suite of programs that support the work of the national agency are proposed in this strategy’s actions and implementation plan. Such programs maximise opportunities to develop new economies, properly enable First Peoples’ leadership, support local initiatives, and deliver learning opportunities across all sectors that are involved with the coastal and marine sectors.

About this strategy

This strategy provides seven recommendations intended to illuminate support systems in achieving sustainable oceans and coasts. Alongside these recommendations, we list tangible actions that can be taken in achieving these, ideas for the design and implementation phases of these actions, and further ideas relating to the monitoring and evaluation of the successes or learning opportunities that arise. We offer insights on anticipated outcomes, and we detail who is responsible for delivering each of these activities. Leaders from all sectors must play an active role in achieving sustainable oceans and coasts for Australia. This strategy represents a cross-sectoral plan for achieving sustainable oceans and coasts across Australia by 2030. It provides a thoughtful and innovative way forward for our federal and state governments and other leaders across the nation, as well as a roadmap for implementing our shared vision for the future of oceans and coasts.