The role of restoration for conserving matters of national environmental significance in marine and coastal environments

Healthy coastal habitats like seagrass meadows, coastal saltmarsh, kelp forests, coral and shellfish reefs, and mangrove forests (‘blue infrastructure’) are essential to the economic and social well-being of coastal communities. These habitats drive coastal productivity supporting our fisheries and other industries associated with recreation in marine environments, improve water quality, sequester carbon, protect shorelines from erosion, and support thriving biodiversity, including threatened species. These habitats are under pressure from coastal development, climate change, pollution, invasive species and other anthropogenic pressures, which have led to drastic declines in many of our important marine and coastal habitats.