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12. Planning and Managing the
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
J. Day
N INTRODUCTION
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMPA) was
established in 1975 to protect the Great Barrier Reef
(GBR) and to ensure its sustainable use. The Marine
Park covers 344 400 km², an area bigger than Victoria
and Tasmania combined.
The GBRMP has always been a multiple-use marine
park, allowing a range of uses and most reasonable activities, but with an overriding conservation objective
of ecological sustainability; this means that the entire
area is protected, but zoned to allow different activities
in different zones and minimise impacts and conflicts.
The GBRMP extends 2300 km along the Queensland
coast, and includes most of the waters from low water
mark on the mainland coast, to the outer (seaward)
boundary up to 280 km offshore. It is complex jurisdictionally, with both the Federal and State (Queensland)
Governments involved in the management of the waters and islands within its outer boundaries. In terms of
global marine protected areas, the GBRMP is:
L one of the world’s largest (it certainly contains the
largest network of No-Take Areas);
L probably the best known, and
L arguably the most methodically planned and comprehensively managed, particularly over such a large
scale.
As the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, the GBR
is also an important global resource. The GBR and its
associated features directly contribute significantly to
Australia’s economy, with direct and indirect value
added contibution estimated $5.4 billion in 2006-07.
This includes $5.1 billion from the tourism industry,
$153 million from recreational activity and $139 million
from commercial fishing. This economic activity generates about 66 000 jobs, mostly in the tourism industry,
which brings over 1.9 million visitors to the GBR each
year. About 69 000 recreational vessels are registered in
the area adjoining the GBR. These industries, and their
flow-on activities, underpin a significant and growing
proportion of Queensland’s regional economy. They
rely on the continued health of the GBR system for their
long term economic sustainability.
Because of the iconic status of the GBR, many people believe that the entire area is a marine sanctuary or
a marine national park, and therefore protected equally
throughout. Many do not appreciate that the GBRMP
is a multiple-use area, in which a wide range of activities and uses are allowed, including most extractive
industries (but not mining nor drilling for oil), while
still protecting one of the world’s most diverse ecosystems. The multiple-use zoning system provides high
levels of protection for specific areas, whilst allowing a
variety of other uses to continue in certain zones. These
12. Planning and Managing the
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
J. Day
N INTRODUCTION
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMPA) was
established in 1975 to protect the Great Barrier Reef
(GBR) and to ensure its sustainable use. The Marine
Park covers 344 400 km², an area bigger than Victoria
and Tasmania combined.
The GBRMP has always been a multiple-use marine
park, allowing a range of uses and most reasonable activities, but with an overriding conservation objective
of ecological sustainability; this means that the entire
area is protected, but zoned to allow different activities
in different zones and minimise impacts and conflicts.
The GBRMP extends 2300 km along the Queensland
coast, and includes most of the waters from low water
mark on the mainland coast, to the outer (seaward)
boundary up to 280 km offshore. It is complex jurisdictionally, with both the Federal and State (Queensland)
Governments involved in the management of the waters and islands within its outer boundaries. In terms of
global marine protected areas, the GBRMP is:
L one of the world’s largest (it certainly contains the
largest network of No-Take Areas);
L probably the best known, and
L arguably the most methodically planned and comprehensively managed, particularly over such a large
scale.
As the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, the GBR
is also an important global resource. The GBR and its
associated features directly contribute significantly to
Australia’s economy, with direct and indirect value
added contibution estimated $5.4 billion in 2006-07.
This includes $5.1 billion from the tourism industry,
$153 million from recreational activity and $139 million
from commercial fishing. This economic activity generates about 66 000 jobs, mostly in the tourism industry,
which brings over 1.9 million visitors to the GBR each
year. About 69 000 recreational vessels are registered in
the area adjoining the GBR. These industries, and their
flow-on activities, underpin a significant and growing
proportion of Queensland’s regional economy. They
rely on the continued health of the GBR system for their
long term economic sustainability.
Because of the iconic status of the GBR, many people believe that the entire area is a marine sanctuary or
a marine national park, and therefore protected equally
throughout. Many do not appreciate that the GBRMP
is a multiple-use area, in which a wide range of activities and uses are allowed, including most extractive
industries (but not mining nor drilling for oil), while
still protecting one of the world’s most diverse ecosystems. The multiple-use zoning system provides high
levels of protection for specific areas, whilst allowing a
variety of other uses to continue in certain zones. These