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SoE themes

• Atmosphere
• Biodiversity
• Coasts & oceans
• Human settlements
• Inland waters
• Land
• Natural & cultural heritage
• Australian Antarctic Territory

Indicator: CO-34 Number and extent of Marine Protected Areas

Data

Some 64,803,076 hectares of marine area and 80,895,099 hectares of coastal land enjoy some measure of legislative protection, including 44,754,964 hectares of World Heritage Area, 160,465 hectares of Registered National Estate and 8,001,010 hectares of Ramsar areas.

The National Marine Atlas provides a map of marine and coastal areas that are protected to varying degrees as: marine reserves and parks, and marine park management areas, Ramsar sites, World Heritage Areas, and Registered National Estate.

• Estuaries and Conservation Status of Coastal and Marine Areas (PDF - 2216 KB) 

Source: National Oceans Office 2006, National Marine Atlas, viewed 29 May 2006, http://www.oceans.gov.au/Non-fish Atlas.jsp, Map 19

The following map shows Commonwealth Marine Protected Area as at 2004.

National Reserve System of Marine Protected Areas

As at 2004 the National Reserve System of Marine Protected Areas (NRSMPA) covered approximately 64,800,000 hectares or 7% of Australia's marine jurisdiction, excluding the Australian Antarctic Territory. The Australian marine area is the area shown on the map below delineated by the dashed blue line. From the coastline to the limit of the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone, including external territories but not the Australian Antarctic Territory, this area is just over 900,000,000 hectares.

Red areas - marine protected areas administered by State and Northern Territory Governments

Blue areas - marine protected areas administered by the Commonwealth Government

• 200 reserves
• 64.8 Mha (25 Mha since 1996)
• 41 / 60 shelf IMCRA mesoscale bioregions sampled, see:Interim Marine and Coastal Regionalisation for Australia Bioregions

Source: NRSMPA progress report 2004, derived from : The Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (CAPAD), 2004.

The following graph shows the growth in area covered by Commonwealth Marine Protected Areas since 1982.

For further information on Marine Protected Areas in the National Reserve System see:

• Marine Protected Areas (Word - 35 KB) 

More than 5 million hectares of marine parks are in Queensland.

• Protected areas - Qld only (Excel -17 KB) 

In 2004, protection of the Great Barrier Reef was substantially increased through a major rezoning in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park which resulted in an increase in the most highly protected ‘green zones’ from about 17 000 square kilometres to about 114 530 square kilometres (about 33 per cent of the total area of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park).

• The Representative Areas Program - Rezoning the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (PDF - 46 KB) 

What the data mean

Different status affords different levels and types of protection to marine and coastal areas.

Data Limitations

The extent to which various levels and types of protection protects the species, habitats and ecosystems they encompass is more difficult to measure than the actual areas under some degree of protection.

Issues for which this is an indicator and why

Coasts and Oceans — Societal responses to direct pressures of human activities on coasts and oceans - Protection of coasts, oceans and marine and coastal biodiversity 

Number and extent of coastal and marine protected areas is one measure of societal will to generically address degradation in the condition of these areas and their biodiversity.

Other indicators for this issue:

• CO-33 Number of species legislatively protected, number with management plans or where management actions have been taken 
• BD-05 Alignment of State/Territory and Australian Government listing processes 
• BD-04 Listed threatened species or ecological communities for which recovery action is showing stable or increasing populations 
• CO-02 Number of marine species that are endangered or threatened and changes in population/ distribution of selected threatened species 

Biodiversity — Species, habitats and ecological communities - Government action on species and ecological communities 

Changes in area under protection is a surrogate indicator for government action on species and communities.

Other indicators for this issue:

• BD-02 Conservation status of nationally significant species and ecological communities, compared with previous years 
• BD-03 Summary of measures being implemented to respond to threats to biodiversity from invasive species 
• BD-04 Listed threatened species or ecological communities for which recovery action is showing stable or increasing populations 
• BD-05 Alignment of State/Territory and Australian Government listing processes 
• BD-24 Government investments to protect biodiversity for public good purposes 
• CO-02 Number of marine species that are endangered or threatened and changes in population/ distribution of selected threatened species 
• CO-33 Number of species legislatively protected, number with management plans or where management actions have been taken 

Biodiversity — Landscapes - Government action on landscape protection 

Changes in area under protection is an indicator for government action on this issue.

Other indicators for this issue:

• BD-17 Institutional response to loss of native vegetation 
• BD-19 Extent and comprehensiveness of terrestrial protected areas 
• BD-24 Government investments to protect biodiversity for public good purposes 
• NCH-01 Process of listing, area and distribution of identified natural heritage places 
• NCH-05 Physical condition and integrity of a sample of natural heritage places 
• NCH-09 Funding provided to heritage and other agencies for natural heritage places 
• NCH-13 Changes in heritage legislation 
• LD-27 Area and proportion of agricultural land under various aspects of "best practice" 
• LD-28 Percentage and area of farms with planted trees 
• LD-29 Area and proportion of forest under "best practice" 
• LD-30 National area under plantation forestry 
• LD-38 Regions with investments having a major focus on salinity 
• AAT-13 Number and area of protected areas 

Further Information

The Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database 2002 provides statistics on protected areas meeting the currently agreed criteria for the inclusion in the National Reserve System:

• CAPAD 2002
• Commonwealth marine protected areas estate