Reef Trust Investment Strategy
Initiative Design and Phase 1 Investment
2014–15
Ministers’ Foreword
The Australian and Queensland Governments have a long history of joint management of the Great Barrier Reef spanning back to the 1970s. The strong collaboration continues today, and is strengthened through the new joint arrangements for the Reef Trust.
The Reef Trust is an innovative mechanism designed to consolidate investment in the Great Barrier Reef and disburse funds strategically to maximise outcomes that improve the health and resilience of the Great Barrier Reef.
We acknowledge the significant work undertaken by landholders, local environment groups, councils, regional natural resource management organisations, the tourism industry, landcare groups and industry organisations to ensure the long-term conservation of the Great Barrier Reef for future generations.
The trust will continue to work with the community to complement and enhance existing efforts. It builds on, but does not duplicate, existing programmes of the Australian and Queensland Governments which aim to improve the health and resilience of the Great Barrier Reef and the quality of water entering the reef’s lagoon. It will also complement initiatives, such as the Green Army, the National Landcare Programme and reef best management practice programmes.
We are pleased to release this interim investment strategy for the Reef Trust, which outlines the design of the trust and identifies initial priority investments to be implemented from 1 July 2014.
The first phase of the Reef Trust will focus on a small number of initial priority investments that have been informed by our existing scientific understanding of the key threats to the Great Barrier Reef. The first phase provides an opportunity to trial a number of different delivery mechanisms, including a competitive tender for nitrogen reduction in the Wet Tropics.
Through the Reef Trust we will work with partners and community groups to improve water quality entering the Great Barrier Reef, help control the current outbreak of crown-of-thorns starfish, and protect threatened and migratory species, particularly dugong and turtles.
Finally, we would like to thank you for your input to date in designing and establishing the Reef Trust and we look forward to working with you to deliver this exciting new initiative.
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The Hon Greg Hunt MP
Australian Government
Minister for the Environment
The Hon Andrew Powell MP
Queensland Government
Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection
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Executive Summary
The Great Barrier Reef is an Australian icon and a World Heritage property recognised internationally for its outstanding universal value. The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem and not only has remarkable biodiversity, but is also critical to the cultural, economic and social wellbeing of the population who live in the Great Barrier Reef catchments and the wider Australian and worldwide community.
The Reef Trust is being coordinated jointly between the Australian Government, including the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) and the Queensland Government.
The Reef Trust will commence operation in 2014-15. In addition to a $40 million contribution from the Australian Government, funding will also be derived from the pooling of offset funds that target specific impacts on the Great Barrier Reef from development activities. Over time, there will also be opportunity for future funding through private investments and philanthropic contributions.
The Reef Trust is being developed and implemented in a phased approach. This Investment Strategy is the first step in the implementation of the Reef Trust. It has been informed by existing scientific, expert and community advice, gathered through consultation with interested groups and community submissions on the Reef Trust discussion paper.
This strategy identifies the objective and outcomes of the Reef Trust and the priority investments to be supported through the initial phase. The focus of the Reef Trust is on known critical areas for investment—improving water quality and coastal habitat along the Great Barrier Reef, controlling the current outbreak of crown-of-thorns starfish, and protecting threatened and migratory species, particularly dugong and turtles. Included are a number of projects identified in the Australian Government’s Reef 2050 Plan election commitment to address high priority threats to the Great Barrier Reef—crown-of-thorns starfish and impacts on dugong and turtles.
Additionally, two key water quality projects have been identified—a competitive tender for nutrient reduction in the Wet Tropics region and a sediment reduction project in the Burdekin and Fitzroy regions. These trial projects will be developed in consultation with scientists and experts and are designed to address the highest risks as identified by the 2013 Scientific Consensus Statement on land use impacts on the Great Barrier Reef. The consensus statement identified that the greatest water quality risks to the Great Barrier Reef are from nitrogen discharge, leading to crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks and damage to coral reefs, and fine sediment discharge which is reducing the light available to seagrass ecosystems and inshore coral reefs.
Improving reef water quality is one of the greatest manageable impacts on the Great Barrier Reef and critical for building the Great Barrier Reef’s resilience against impacts such as climate change and more extreme weather. While water quality is on a positive trajectory as a result of significant interventions over the past ten years and the adoption of improved farming practices by agricultural industries, the most recent reef report card indicates that more effort is needed to meet the desired targets. Building upon the work already underway and the progress made to date, a key aim of the Reef Trust will be to help deliver investments and on-ground actions that will bridge the gap between where the current trajectory will take us and where we need to be to achieve the agreed water quality targets set out in the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan 2013.
A more comprehensive investment strategy will be developed over time and will identify additional projects to be funded under Reef Trust, including a balance of short, medium and longer term projects.
Part 1: Background and Context
Introduction
Since the late 1970s the Australian and Queensland Governments have jointly managed the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and continue to uphold the highest of standards for its management. Under the Great Barrier Reef Intergovernmental Agreement 2009, the Australian and Queensland Governments have committed to working collaboratively to ensure the long-term protection and conservation of the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem, and ensuring its iconic natural beauty, community benefits and outstanding universal values are preserved for future generations.
The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area is a large, complex natural system with multiple uses and is subject to many impacts. The Great Barrier Reef strategic assessments undertaken by the Australian and Queensland Governments identified the most significant impacts as those relating to climate change, catchment runoff, modifications to terrestrial supporting habitats and direct use. The accumulation of impacts, through time and over an ever-increasing area, is diminishing the ecosystem’s ability to recover from disturbances. This is a key concern given resilience is the region’s insurance against a range of future pressures.
Long-term monitoring of mid- and outer-shelf reefs by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) shows the Great Barrier Reef has lost half its coral cover in the past 27 years. Storm damage, crown-of-thorns starfish, and bleaching events have been major acute drivers of coral loss across the Great Barrier Reef, while more chronic pressures from poor water quality and the accumulation of many acute pressures has reduced ecosystem resilience in inshore waters. Here, an additional 34 per cent of largely fringing coral reefs have been lost since 2005. Current scientific evidence also indicates that elevated nutrient levels are linked to outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish.
A wide variety of management tools, programmes and policies are in place to address the challenges the Great Barrier Reef is facing. Through the establishment of the joint Australian and Queensland Governments’ Reef Water Quality Protection Plan 2013 (Reef Plan 2013) and knowledge gained from 10 years of research, collaboration, coordination and identification of effective on-ground actions, there has been significant effort placed on prioritising these actions to address the greatest threats to the quality of water entering the Great Barrier Reef. This includes the 2013 Scientific Consensus Statement which reviews and synthesises the significant advances in scientific knowledge of water quality issues for the Great Barrier Reef and provides a consensus on the current understanding of the system. The result of the on-ground efforts over recent years demonstrates a positive trend to the improvement of water quality. Greater targeting of these efforts and an enhancement of the science underpinning investment decisions over time will further improve water quality outcomes. Existing science provides a sound basis to target initial investment actions while ways to prioritise future on-ground actions to reduce high-risk pollutants in high-priority catchments are enhanced.
Given the diverse and wide-ranging threats to the Great Barrier Reef, strategic prioritisation remains key to ensure that the threats to the Great Barrier Reef are addressed in an effective, efficient and appropriate manner and are consistent with the long-term vision for the protection of the Great Barrier Reef.
Long-term plan
The Australian and Queensland Governments are currently working together to develop the Reef 2050 Long Term Sustainability Plan (the plan).The plan will outline the vision, outcomes and targets for the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area; identify a series of collaborative actions; and establish an integrated monitoring programme to measure success. The plan will build upon the strong foundation of existing programmes and identify areas where further collaborative steps can be taken to improve the health and resilience of the Great Barrier Reef.
The Reef Trust is one of the key mechanisms that will assist in the delivery of the plan. It will provide cost effective, strategic investment to support on-ground action in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and the reef catchments for the long-term protection and conservation of the outstanding universal value of the Great Barrier Reef. Investments will be aligned to key outcomes and targets being developed under the plan.
Figure 1 outlines the relationship between the plan, the Reef Trust, and other initiatives that contribute to the long-term protection of the Great Barrier Reef.
Pooled resources
An initial $40 million investment will be made by the Australian Government for the Reef Trust. In addition to this initial contribution from the Australian Government, funding will also be derived from the pooling of offset funds that target specific residual significant impacts on the Great Barrier Reef from development activities. Over time, there will be potential for future funding through private investments and philanthropic contributions.
By pooling investments and applying these funds more strategically based on the latest scientific information, funding for the protection of the Great Barrier Reef will be delivered in a coordinated manner, maximising the outcomes for the reef.
Building on existing efforts
Reef Trust investment will build on existing efforts, programmes and funding commitments, not duplicate them. The initial contribution of funding to the Reef Trust is in addition to the current five-year programme of actions by both governments to protect the Great Barrier Reef that have been committed to under Reef Plan 2013. Reef Plan 2013 is targeted towards improving the quality of water flowing into the reef lagoon and enhancing the Great Barrier Reef’s resilience. These efforts are showing results. The most recent reef report card shows that the quality of water entering the reef continues to improve and that the objective to halt and reverse the decline in water quality has been met.
While water quality is on a positive trajectory as a result of significant interventions over the past ten years and the adoption of improved farming practices by agricultural industries, more effort is needed to meet the ambitious targets of Reef Plan 2013.
Figure 1: Relationship of the Reef Trust to other Great Barrier Reef Initiatives
Investment approach
This Investment Strategy has been informed by existing scientific, expert and community advice and is the first step in the implementation of the Reef Trust.
Reef Trust will be implemented in a phased approach, with initial trial investments based on the strength of available evidence about the key threats to the Great Barrier Reef and the effectiveness of actions that can be taken to address them.
A phased approach will enable some targeted and critical early investments on known key threats while the outcomes and targets of the Reef 2050 Long Term Sustainability Plan are finalised. It will also allow for future consultation on both the plan and the long-term investment approach for the Reef Trust.
This strategy has been informed by consultations with key partners, and the views of Great Barrier Reef community and industry groups in response to the Reef Trust discussion paper. Submissions were supportive of the concept of a Reef Trust, principles and priorities. Key themes expressed through the submissions on the discussion paper highlighted:
· the importance of consultation and partnerships to achieve maximised outcomes;
· flexible selection and delivery of projects in line with Reef Trust principles to support and encourage innovation;
· addressing the primary causes of declining Great Barrier Reef health, including agricultural runoff;
· the need to consider regional impacts and delivery approaches; and
· independence and transparency in governance arrangements being required to attract future external funds.
The detail in the submissions has been drawn upon to inform this strategy and will shape the longer-term investment strategy and functioning of the Reef Trust.
This interim strategy outlines the design of the Reef Trust, including its objectives, outcomes and governance arrangements and identifies the initial round of investment in high-priority actions to be funded from 2014–15. The design of the Reef Trust will evolve over time and in response to future consultation. The initial focus is on known critical areas for investment—improving water quality and coastal habitat along the Great Barrier Reef, controlling the current outbreak of crown-of-thorns starfish, and protecting threatened and migratory species, particularly dugongs and turtles. The Reef Trust is only one mechanism for delivering investment in the Great Barrier Reef, and as such relies upon other initiatives across governments, industry and the agricultural community to assist in addressing the issues facing the Great Barrier Reef.