Timetable for Marine Bioregional Planning in the East
The marine bioregional planning process
The first stage of the planning process involves developing a Regional Profile of each marine region. Regional Profiles are documents that describe each region’s key habitats, species, natural processes, heritage values, human uses and benefits. The profiles will draw on Australia’s growing marine science and socio-economic information base to provide a detailed picture of each marine region.
The Regional Profiles will give details about the various statutory obligations under the EPBC Act and other environmental legislation that applies in any region, as well as describing existing conservation measures and other marine spatial management measures such as area closures for fisheries. The Regional Profiles will also set out the objectives for subsequent work to identify an MPA network for the marine region which, will form part of the National Representative System of MPAs.
Following the release of a Regional Profile, the Department of the Environment and Heritage will conduct a strategic regional assessment of conservation values and the current and emerging pressures on the marine environment. The results of this assessment, to be included in a draft Marine Bioregional Plan, will identify key conservation and heritage priorities for each marine region and the range of legislative and administrative tools available to the Government to manage them. The strategic assessment will provide valuable input to the identification of MPAs. A candidate network of MPAs will be included in the draft Marine Bioregional Plan.
The draft Marine Bioregional Plan will be open for public consultation under regulations to be made under the EPBC Act.
The Marine Bioregional Plan will be finalised after the public consultation. It will identify conservation values in the region, priorities and measures for the protection of these values, a network of MPAs and a set of sustainability indicators that will be used to help tell us about the health of the marine environment into the future.
The development of Marine Bioregional Plans will include a greater focus than has occurred previously on the provision of information on each region. This will be done via the internet. The public will be able to view maps of a region representing different types of information (e.g. species distribution, location of conservation values, spread and intensity of industries) as well as being able to provide comments on information contained in Regional Profiles, draft and final Marine Bioregional Plans.
When will the new approach be completed?
The Department of the Environment and Heritage has already begun Marine Bioregional Planning and the resultant plans will be progressively completed between 2010 and 2012. A more detailed timetable for this Region will be released soon.
See also
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