Designing a targeted monitoring program to support evidence-based management of Australian Marine Parks: A pilot in the South-east Marine Parks Network

Parks Australia, supporting the Director of National Parks, manages 58 Australian Marine Parks which are in Commonwealth waters. Commonwealth waters extend from the outer edge of State and Territory waters (approximately 5.5 km from the shore) to the outer boundary of Australia’s exclusive economic zone (generally around 370 km from the shore). These parks are vast, covering 2.8 million km2, about 31% of Australia’s marine jurisdiction.

In 2016 the Director of National Parks instigated the development of a Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement (MERI) framework for the Australian Marine Park (AMP) estate. The MERI framework aims to help Parks Australia move from the scoping and planning stages of the adaptive management cycle to the do, evaluate, report and improve stages. The broader MERI system consists of an overarching Framework, supporting MERI plan and network level Science plans. In December 2019 Parks Australia engaged the Marine Biodiversity Hub to assist in the design of a Science Plan for the South-east marine region. This report documents the outcomes of this engagement.