7. Existing protection and management

Community benefits of the environment encompass the socio-economic and socio-cultural attributes of the Reef. Many of these are values based and include benefits such as employment, income, understanding, appreciation, enjoyment, personal connection, health benefits and access to Reef resources. 

Community benefits are supported under the Marine Park Act 1975. They are also addressed in many of the policy and decision-making guidelines for the Reef. For example, the Reef 2050 Plan aims to develop a shared understanding of the community benefits derived from the Reef and provides principles for decision-making including basing decisions on best available science and community knowledge. 

In recognition that some of the most significant threats to the Reef come from outside the Region (climate change, land-based runoff), managing agencies have increased efforts to understand, work with and influence the broader community. This is done through, for example, regional report card partnerships, Local Marine Advisory Committees, educational and virtual outreach programs, and the Great Barrier Reef Aquarium. 

Since 2019, significant work has been undertaken by managers to better understand community benefits across the Region and to incorporate this knowledge into planning, policy and assessment processes. The primary monitoring program for this is the Social and Economic Long-Term Monitoring Program (SELTMP) that gathers long-term data about Reef users, communities and industries, and their changing relationship with the Reef over time. This program provides information, such as on human use and dependency, wellbeing, and cultural context, to ensure management decisions reflect the needs of the people who interact with the Reef. 

To supplement this, the Sustainable Use and Benefits Monitoring Project (SEABORNE) considers who uses the Reef, for what purpose and benefit, and how human use impacts the Reef’s ecological, social and economic values. The Integrated Reef Stewardship Monitoring Project (PROTECT) monitors how individuals and community organisations engage in Reef stewardship and explores the causal links between stewardship activities and desired Reef outcomes. While there has been significant investment in developing systematic monitoring programs to track trends over time for community benefits, full implementation does not have secure, ongoing resourcing. 

Monitoring community benefits through the lens of climate change is a key challenge. The exact form of these impacts on community benefits is still largely unknown, particularly under high emission scenarios where there are significant gaps in existing knowledge regarding disruptions to the Reef and the cascading impacts on socio-ecological systems and community benefits.