The workshop sought the response of conservation groups to the submissions and documentation compiled by the Audit with respect to the management of marine parks in New South Wales.

Assoc. Prof. Bob Beeton (Chair), Prof. Colin Buxton, Prof. Peter Fairweather, Assoc. Prof. Emma Johnston, Dr. Roberta Ryan, Mr. Greg Cutbush and secretariat staff, were part of the audit panel.

Facing the panel with Dr Pease were representatives of the main conservation groups that made submissions to the Audit. These included Pepe Clarke (CEO) and Paula Brown (Marine Campaigner), Nature Conservation Council of NSW; Kevin Evans (CEO), National Parks Association of NSW; Keith Muir (Executive Director), Colong Foundation for Wilderness; and Marny Bonner (President) and Gordon Fraser-Quick (Campaigner), Australian Seabird Rescue.

“The Panel asked a wide range of questions regarding our views on the management of Marine Parks in NSW, including key threats to biodiversity, the adequacy and effectiveness of current management processes for protecting marine and estuarine biodiversity, governance issues and our suggestions for improvement,” reports Dr Pease.

“Our views were in general agreement and I felt that our contributions were respected and taken on board.

“The proceedings were recorded and a transcript will be circulated to attendees. Some interesting threads emerged and I would be happy to discuss the issues with anyone who is interested.”

For an excellent summary of available literature on the environmental benefits of Marine Protected Areas, Dr Pease recommends a reading of joint Submission 181 by Pepe Clarke, Darren Kindleysides and Kevin Evans on behalf of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, the Australian Marine Conservation Society and the National Parks Association of NSW, at http://www.marineparksaudit.nsw.gov.au/submissions/submissions-received/

We were all enthralled, as these photos show.

In May this year, Perth-based mining company Gold of Ophir Pty Ltd applied for 15 licenses to explore for gold covering over 4000 square kilometres from the Hunter, North West Slopes and New England. One of these licenses, ELA 4269 covered the Karuah River catchment in the Monkerai Valley nearDungog and Stroud in the Upper Hunter.

The local landholders in ELA 4269 quickly mobilised. A community group, the Karuah River Protection Group, was formed and a community meeting was organised in the local Monkerai Hall. Over 90 people crowded the hall, including affected landholders form the Karuah, Williams, Allan and Paterson River Valleys, local tourism operators, forestry businesses and downstream oyster farmers in the Port Stephens. A resolution opposing the gold exploration application was unanimously passed.

Following this, local landholders wrote letters opposing the expansion to the company, the Premier, the Ministers for Environment and Resources, local MPs and Mayors and a contingent met with the departmental officials.

Information about threatened species was gathered and the Environmental Defenders Office visited the valley to inform the local community of their legal rights and legal strategies to oppose mining. 751 people participated in a cyber action opposing the mine.

On Friday 21 October, the Chairperson of Gold of Ophir Paul Chapman informed members of the Karuah River Protection Group that he would withdraw the mining lease. On Monday 24 October, the NSW Department of Mining confirmed that the lease application ELA 4269 had been withdrawn.

The vast majority of Gold of Ophir’s exploration licence applications remain on the books. In the wake of the global financial crisis, the price of gold has risen steeply as gold is seen as a refuge in the face of economic volatility. As of today, the price of gold stands at $1660 per ounce. In NSW this appears to be leading to a modern gold rush as previously uneconomic gold deposits become viable.

In the Hunter Valley, already struggling with a massive expansion in coal and coal seam gas mining, a new wave of gold mines will inflame communities and put further strain on water resources and air pollution.

Local landholder and spokesperson for Karuah River Protection Group Di Johnston said: “This is a massive win for our local community.

“At times it felt like a David and Goliath battle but this shows that there is hope in rural communities standing up to mining companies.

“It means that the pristine ecosystem in the Karuah catchment and our prime food-producing land will be safe from gold mining.

“We all feel a massive sense of relief. The value of tourism, agriculture and fisheries is worth far more than gold to our community”

Released by the Karuah River Protection Group. Further information: Di Johnston 02 4994 7175

Our objectives, guided by the Precautionary Principle, are:

1. A literature review and assessment of the main contemporary and historical hydrological, sand accretion and migration, and siltation studies conducted on the Port Stephens estuary, towards a review and update of the Port Stephens / Myall Lakes Estuary Management Plan 2000.
2. To review existing best practice in adaptive estuarine and ecosystem management processes and identify deleterious human activities impacting on these processes and associated marine biodiversity.
3. To support the establishment in Port Stephens of Sustainable Neighbourhoods initially to address climate change and the estuarine and coastal impacts of sea-level rise, increased storm surge and later to address all aspects of sustainability.
4. To identify and maintain natural carrying capacities for activities, areas and ecosystems as a whole, where these are found to be excessive moratoriums and other constraints must be considered.
5. To develop a capacity to more accurately foresee the potential impacts of major storm events, ocean warming and sea-level rise on estuary processes, foreshores and human activity.
6. To establish a holistic resource and knowledge base of natural and related estuary processes and human influences.
7. To recognise that ultimately, the estuary management plan will need to be reviewed and updated to become part of an Integrated Coastal Zone Management Plan (ICZMP), to provide the overarching governance instrument and participatory democratic process needed for sustainable outcomes for the Port Stephens estuary, its foreshores and environs.
8. To arrange for the appropriate Council, State, Federal Authorities, their Agencies, relevant professionals, NGO’s and other stakeholders to consider these objectives and identify the formal steps needed to achieve them.

1.    Review the domestic and international commitments to conserving marine biodiversity, current actions for meeting these commitments and the effectiveness of these actions

Econetwork Port Stephens Inc. is a sustainability and conservation based network of environmentally concerned citizen groups. While our primary focus is on community and environmental issues in the Port Stephens region, we try to think globally while acting locally. Therefore, we are addressing this state-wide review of marine parks with our global concerns, which are based on our local concern for the Port Stephens-Great Lakes Marine Park. 

The NSW government has both international and domestic commitments to implement a representative system of marine protected areas (MPAs). Australia is a signatory to the international Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that requires all member nations to establish and manage a system of protected areas for the conservation of biological diversity. Under the obligations of the CBD, the governments of Australia and New Zealand founded the Australia and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council Task Force on Marine Protected Areas (ANZECC) which published guidelines for establishing a national system of MPA’s in 1998. The current system of five Marine Parks in NSW has been established following the recognized “best practice” guidelines developed by ANZECC. EcoNetwork Port Stephens believes that the current size and zoning structure of marine parks in NSW provides the initial and therefore minimum commitment to the effective conservation of marine and estuarine biodiversity in NSW. Under its international and domestic commitments, the NSW Government must continue a program of monitoring and research within the marine park system that will provide a basis for reviewing and maximising the effectiveness of this system for conserving marine biodiversity into the future. We believe the completely protected sanctuary/refuge zones should ultimately be expanded to 30% of the total Marine Park area.

Our most important commitment must be to our children. Under the basic principle of sustainable management, our children have a right to inherit Australian marine and estuarine ecosystems that are as least as healthy as they were when we inherited them from our parents.

2. Review the scientific data provided to the Panel by the NSW Department of Primary Industries and the Office of Environment & Heritage

The majority of scientific data provided by the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) relates primarily to marine rocky reef habitats.  There is relatively little ecological information on estuarine and ocean beach habitats. This indicates that DPI and the Marine Parks Authority have a historic bias toward the ecological importance of marine rocky reef habitats at the expense of many other habitat types.

The data provided by the Office of Environment & Heritage has not been collected at a scale or within a design framework that is suitable for use in assessing the effectiveness of marine protected areas. Catchments and estuaries can be comparatively assessed but not habitats or protected zones within estuaries.

3. Review the degree to which all threats to the varying types of marine environments have been properly identified and prioritised. The Panel will then consider the degree to which the marine parks process is anticipated to address each significant threat

At the local scale, increasing human populations, their development and extraction activities in coastal catchments and the associated threats of non-point source pollution to estuarine habitats have not been thoroughly identified and prioritised. There is currently much concern within our local community over increased mining activity for resources such as gold and coal seam gas in the upper catchments of the Port Stephens and Great Lakes estuaries, but the associated threats of increased sediment and toxic chemical loads to downstream estuarine habitats in the Port Stephens – Great Lakes Marine Park have not been identified. Research on sediment transport, sedimentation, erosion and associated impacts should be a high priority for the Port Stephens – Great Lakes Marine Park in order to address this significant threat.

At the global scale, the Commonwealth Government acknowledges the global impact of climate change through carbon tax legislation but the associated potential impacts of sea level rise and seawater acidification on zones and habitats within NSW Marine Parks have not been identified as a significant threat by the NSW Marine Parks Authority or DPI, despite a recommendation from the report in your “Audit document tracking database” entitled “Independent Review of Marine Parks in NSW” by Fairweather, Buxton, and Robinson (2009).

4. Review the specific science relating to the effectiveness of marine parks in protecting different habitat types and recommend further action and/or alternative management approaches if necessary

A review of the Research Work Plans by the NSW Marine Parks Authority, associated research by NSW DPI and various university partnerships reveal that research and monitoring work in NSW Marine Parks to date has been focused primarily on marine rocky reef habitats and associated megafauna. There has been very little research to assess or monitor the effectiveness of protected areas in any of the valuable estuarine or ocean beach habitats. It is a well known fact that many (Pollard, 1976 estimated 70%) of the commercially and recreationally valuable fish and invertebrates that are harvested in a range of marine habitats in southeastern Australia are dependent on estuarine habitats at some point in their life-history. Many marine fish and invertebrate species use estuaries as nursery grounds and a range of seabird species use intertidal estuarine habitats as feeding grounds.  Estuarine seagrass beds remove CO₂ from the environment more efficiently than terrestrial forests. Ocean beach habitats support a range of valuable fisheries, including commercial beach hauling for finfish, recreational angling for finfish and commercial/recreational hand gathering fisheries for pipis and beach worms. More research in protected estuarine and ocean beach habitats within NSW Marine Parks will help in the assessment of their value and effectiveness.

The current system of marine parks in NSW does not completely fulfil the ANZECC requirements of a comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve system, because some estuarine habitat types are not represented at all and other habitat types, such as the ocean beaches, are under-represented compared with continental shelf habitats.  Large, geologically immature, non-tidal, permanently open, barrier-type estuaries (Roy, 1984), such as Wallis, Macquarie, Tuggerah, Illawarra and St. George Lakes, are a characteristic feature of the central bioregions of NSW (Pease, 1999), but habitats in this distinct estuary type are not represented within the protected zones of any marine park in NSW.  This oversight could be rectified by adding protected areas within Wallis Lake to the Port Stephens – Great Lakes Marine Park.

Some estuarine habitats in geologically mature, tidal, barrier-type estuaries are protected with no-take sanctuary zones but none of the habitats near the marine entrance to these estuaries enjoy sanctuary status. Therefore, commercial and recreational fishing activities may significantly impact on the essential movement of fish and invertebrates in and out of this significant estuary type, compromising the effectiveness of the sanctuary zones within these estuaries to protect other significant estuarine habitats. This oversight could be rectified by extending the sanctuary zone in Corindi River, in the Solitary Islands Marine Park, all the way to its marine entrance.

5. Recommend ways to increase the cost-effectiveness of marine park zoning arrangements

Expand and connect wherever possible the current set of small, disjointed refuge areas to ultimately achieve 30% of the total Marine Park area.  This will simplify and reduce the cost of compliance. It will also increase the value of “ecosystem services” if refuge areas are functioning together, rather than as smaller individual units.

6. Recommend ways to improve inclusion of social and economic impacts into decision-making on marine parks, in particular the design and management of marine parks

The economic value of marine protected areas has historically been underestimated because it is typically based only on the value of extractive fisheries resources and tourism. The true economic value of these areas must include all “ecosystem services” such as carbon removal and storage by macrophytes and algae, fish and invertebrate nursery functions for commercial and recreational fisheries, as well as protection of foreshores from wave and storm surge damage. The cost of externalities must also be incorporated into any financial calculation on which decisions are made. The Australian Centre for Policy Development (Centre for Policy Development, 2011) has recently estimated that Australian marine habitats have been undervalued by at least 25 billion dollars per year from failure to include ecosystem services in valuations. More accurate value estimates for protected areas would allow more realistic economically based assessment and comparison of socio-economic factors during reviews of marine park design and management.

7. Identify and recommend ways to address the most significant information gaps hindering robust, evidence-based decision-making on marine parks

Conduct more research and monitoring in estuarine and ocean beach habitats within marine parks to improve the evidence-based decision-making on protected areas within these ecologically important and economically valuable habitat types.

Use socio-economically based techniques such as those provided in the report within your “Audit document tracking database” entitled “Economic values of NSW Marine Parks” by Hassall and Gillespie (2004) to assess and compile economic values for ecosystem services provided by habitats in all protected areas of NSW Marine Parks. It is understood that funding for scientific research in marine parks is limited.  Therefore, community volunteer programs for ecological health and usage monitoring using motivated and trained members of the community should be encouraged. Ecological observers can be a very useful component of long-term monitoring programs.

8. Make recommendations on how all current potential threats to the marine environment could be effectively addressed and which bodies or agencies would be most appropriate to address them

Threats to fisheries resources could be addressed more directly using the Status of Fisheries Resources reports (most recently: Rowling, Hegarty and Ives. 2010) which are produced by NSW DPI. The level of protection could be increased in Marine Park zones for species that are classified as “overfished” or “uncertain” in the Status reports. The pipi resource provides a useful example of how this approach could be applied.  The most recent report shows the status of the pipi resource as “uncertain” because commercial catch statistics show that the catch per unit of fishing effort for this species has declined steadily since 1998. Annual commercial catches are now a fraction of the 1998 peak and anecdotal information from recreational fishers also indicates that stocks are at an all time low. We cannot afford to wait a number of years until a suitable monitoring program has been implemented and the scientific information identifies the cause for the decline in pipi stocks. If hand gathering of pipis was banned in habitat protection zones within all NSW Marine Parks, a significant percent of the pipi population in NSW would be protected from commercial and recreational harvest while research by NSW DPI on the cause of the population decline is implemented.

9. Make other recommendations as appropriate, related to achieving better management of the NSW marine environment

The principles of subsidiarity (decisions made at the most local level possible) and democracy should be applied to the management process by increasing representation of the local community. Stakeholders with vested interests must be represented but should not dominate the management decision-making process. In a democracy, communities should be the critical stakeholder when decisions are made. We believe sustainable communities (Espey, 2009) will play a key role in future governance models. Increased effort should be devoted to achieving an overlap between community view informed by science (action research) and the scientific views informed by the community. Community volunteer monitoring programs not only provide an inexpensive source of information, they also impart an increased sense of ownership and management responsibility. The co-management process needs to be monitored, reviewed and researched as part of the management improvement process in order to replicate and learn from experiences elsewhere in NSW and in the Commonwealth.

Solid research and monitoring evidence is needed for achieving better management. However, funding is limited and timely decisions must continue to be made using the best available international information from similar habitats and application of the precautionary principle.

References:

Centre for Policy Development. 2011. http://cpd.org.au/2011/09/stocking-up/

Espey, Q.I. 2009, “People, politics and partnerships to mitigate CO2 and global impacts”. UNFCCC Cop 15. ICLEI Local Government Climate Roadmap.

Fairweather, P., C.Buxton, and J. Robinson. 2009. “Marine Park Science in NSW – an Independent Review”. Report prepared for Marine Parks Advisory Council NSW.

Hassall and Gillespie. 2004. “Economic Values of NSW Marine Parks -

Models for Identifying Economic Values, and Developing Procedures for On-Going Data Collection and Monitoring”. For NSW Marine Parks Authority. By Hassall & Associates Pty Lt and Gillespie Economics. Sydney.

Pease, B.C.. 1999. “A spatially oriented analysis of estuaries and their associated commercial fisheries in New South Wales, Australia”. Fisheries Research. 42: 67-86.

Pollard, D.A. 1976. “Estuaries must be protected”, Australian Fisheries, 35: 61-65.

Rowling, K., A. Hegarty and M. Ives (Eds.). 2010, “Status of Fisheries Resources in NSW 2008/09”, NSW Industry and Investment, Cronulla, NSW.

Roy, P.S. 1984. “New South Wales Estuaries; their origin and evolution”. In: Thom, B.G. (Ed), Coastal Geomorphology in Australia. Academic Press. Sydney. pp. 99-121.

Dr Bruce Pease
President
EcoNetwork – Port Stephens Inc.

Darrell Dawson (centre) who was awarded the Port Stephens Medal, Craig Baumann MP (left) and EcoNetwork President Dr Bruce Pease at the presentation ceremony.

Darrell Dawson, founder of EcoNetwork was awarded the 2011 Port Stephens Medal at the annual Community Awards held at Port Stephens Council on 9 September.

It was a fitting tribute to Darrell, who has been totally devoted to and the driving force of EcoNetwork since its inception in the early 1990s.

The Port Stephens Medal is awarded to individuals or groups for distinguished service to the Port Stephens community.

Darrell has been involved in the protection of the Port Stephens environment for 25 years.

Since becoming EcoNetwork’s founding secretary and later a coordinator, he has played a prominent role in a number of activities, including: protection of native wildlife habitat, expansion of Tomaree National Park, protection of Port Stephens waters from pollution and large scale commercial development, membership of Port Stephens/Myall Lakes Estuary Management Committee and Port Stephens/Great Lakes Marine Park Advisory Committee, initiating the Nelson Bay Town & Foreshore Advisory Group and the Shoal Bay Community Association.

The presentation was attended by more than 100 guests including the Federal Member for Paterson, Bob Baldwin MP; the State Member for Port Stephens, Craig Baumann MP; Port Stephens Mayor Bob Westbury, Deputy Mayor Sally Dover and General Manager Peter Gesling.

Darrell was among 15 residents and groups whose achievements in providing service to the Port Stephens community earned them nominations for Port Stephens Community Awards.

Mr Baumann acknowledged them and their achievements in a report to the NSW Parliament on 14 September.

In response to your call for community comment EcoNetwork – Port Stephens Inc. declares our opposition in principle to the establishment of the Newcastle Gas Storage Facility primarily because it encourages the use of fossil fuels instead of renewable energy sources.

In principle opposition to planning and allocating resources to promote fossil fuels

We oppose the development of facilities anywhere along the supply chain that promote the use of fossil fuels. The notion that natural gas should be an interim fuel between coal/oil and renewables is misinformed and dangerous to the global environment, to current generations and particularly to future generations. We are already witnessing an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme climatic events.

Given the consensus among of the vast majority of climate change scientists about the extent to which burning fossil fuels contribute to global warming it is imperative that we adopt the fundamental ESD precautionary principle and a responsible approach in terms of risk management. The consensus is that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere should be stabilised at 350 ppm (and a 1.5 degree C rise) to prevent overshooting a tipping point that will result in catastrophic results for the global environment, the deaths and displacement of millions of people worldwide and the disappearance of island nations. The current concentration already exceeds 350 ppm and global business as usual is trending at a worst-case scenario of 6 degree C increase by 2100.

The use or natural gas as an “interim fuel” in Australia will contribute to the above scenario, which in Port Stephens will include sea level rise, increasing storm surge, deaths from heat stroke and the destruction of ecosystems. As a conservation and natural heritage community network in Port Stephens it is incumbent on us to oppose any investment in fossil fuel use.

An alternative approach to using fossil fuels is available now and has been fully costed. I refer to the Zero Carbon Australia 2020 Stationary Energy Plan [ZCA2020 Plan] – a collaboration between Melbourne University’s Energy Research Institute, the environment group Beyond Zero Emissions and engineers Sinclair Knight Merz. This uses current technologies for Australia to transition to 100% renewable energy within ten years. It shows that all of Australia’s energy needs can be supplied by renewable concentrating solar thermal power and wind, by developing what is relatively simple infrastructure, thus contributing to the global solution as opposed to contributing to the global problem. The decisions that are made now and in the current decadal window of opportunity are critical to our future. Approval of the Newcastle Gas Storage Facility will reflect a lack of political will and a concession to vested financial and media interests.

In principle opposition to planning and the allocation of resources to facilities that will promote the extraction of coal seam gas (particularly in the Hunter), of fracking methods, and the drilling for gas off the coast during the lifetime of the facility.

Many indicators point to the fact that the Federal Government is gearing up to use the carbon tax to drive the electricity generation industry to switch from one type of fossil fuel (coal) to another type of fossil fuel (coal seam gas). Coal seam gas still produces CO2 on combustion and the extraction process has devastating impacts on underground water supplies. The NSW Government has announced that its moratorium on coal seam gas exploration is to be withdrawn after only two months, presenting an opportunity for the proposed AGL “natural gas” storage facility to source gas from coal seams and engage in the environmentally damaging practice of fracking. AGL’s own project justification document says the facility ‘will provide support and distribution infrastructure for the developing coal seam gas production industry in NSW’. We are concerned that this likelihood, along with coastal drilling for gas are part of a plan to make the Hunter region a major player in the rapid transition from coal to coal seam gas for power production.

Again, the precautionary approach should apply. It is incumbent on the developer and the Government to prove that fracking is harmless and if not, that coal seam gas would never be stored in the facility proposed during its lifetime. The same principle applies to the development of offshore gas supplies. Without this undertaking the facility should not be given the go ahead.

Opposition to the development of the site due the loss of Koala and ecosystem habitat.

The site for the facility is very diverse with ten vegetation communities, koalas, Squirrel Gliders, New Holland mice and nine threatened fauna species. Earp’s Gum, Eucalyptus parramattensis subsp. decadens, a vulnerable species and a koala feed tree, is present on the site. Sixty-seven trees will be lost due to the proposal. Freshwater Wetlands and Swamp Oak Floodplain Forest Endangered Ecological Communities also exist on the site. The current preferred koala habitat is of good quality and the main buildings making up the gas storage facility will impinge on the Buffer to the Preferred Habitat (2.9ha). Another major concern is that the service road and pipeline cut across sensitive areas and will impact on Preferred Koala Habitat (Swamp Mahogany Forest) and a unique Forest Redgum-Banksia community (Eucalyptus tereticornis is a preferred Koala feed tree).  In addition a good deal of Supplementary Koala Habitat will be impacted (20ha). Finally a 25m APZ around the facility for bushfire mitigation will directly impact or degrade the Swamp Mahogany forest in the far eastern end of the development area.

For the above reasons, EcoNetwork – Port Stephens Inc opposes the development of the Newcastle Gas Storage Facility.

AN ECO-ORIENTED CULTURE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES AND THE TRANSFER OF INTACT ECO-SYSTEMS TO FUTURE GENERATIONS.

Dr Quentin Ian Espey
Vice President and Coordinator (elect)
EcoNetwork – Port Stephens Inc.
PO Box 97
Nelson Bay NSW 2315
Street Address:
90 Tomaree Rd
Shoal Bay NSW 2315
Tel.: 0423 024819
econetworkps@nelsonbay.com

http://www.econetworkps.org/

26.7.11