Regional Marine Planning

Abstract

AbstractThe concept of regional marine planning (where regions are effectively large ecosystems having areas of the order of hundreds of thousands of km2) has gradually been gaining global acceptance over the last 20 years.This paper presents an overview of aspects of regional marine planning, including the basic concepts of using large marine ecosystems as planning zones, the advantages and disadvantages, issues that need to be considered, and implementation concerns.Recently, the Australian Government, through the 1998 National Oceans Policy, has made a commitment to regional marine planning for the areas of ocean under Australia’s jurisdiction. Part of the reason for this has been the experience gained from the systems established and operations involved in management of the Great Barrier Reef area adjacent to Queensland This paper includes a discussion of Australia’s experiences with regional marine planning and the ongoing development of a national program to develop regional plans for Australia’s oc...