Great Barrier ReefCoastal Zone StrategicAssessmentstrategic assessment report

DRAFT for consultation

2013

The Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning is responsible for driving the economic development of Queensland. © State of Queensland, Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning, November 2013, 100 George Street, Brisbane Qld 4000. (Australia)

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Internal reference: D13/107221

Strategic Assessment Report

Consultation processes on a range of Queensland Government initiatives have informed the Strategic Assessment of the coastal zone, including on the draft Great Barrier Reef Ports Strategy, the draft Queensland Ports Strategy, the draft State Planning Policy, the draft Coastal Management Plans and the draft Queensland Offsets Policy. The Queensland Government acknowledges and thanks all who have made contributions to these consultation processes.Additionally many others have provided input into the Queensland Government strategic assessment during its development, including member organisations of the Strategic Assessment Stakeholder Reference Group, chaired by the Deputy Premier. The Queensland Government has worked closely with the Australian Government, including the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) in preparing this report and would like to thank the GBRMPA for its contributions of data and expertise, as well as its ongoing spirit of collaboration between the two Governments without which this report would not have been made possible.The Queensland Government also acknowledges the contribution of the GBRMPA’s committees which have provided advice on both the Queensland and GBRMPA strategic assessments. A number of scientists have reviewed the technical framework that underpins the Queensland Government and the GBRMPA strategic assessment. Thank you to the Independent Science Panel members: Dr Roger Shaw, Dr Peter Doherty, Dr Neil Byron, Professor Eva Abal and Dr Mike Grundy who ensured a strong foundation for developing the Strategic Assessment reports through a rigorous and transparent methodology. The contribution of a wide range of experts, both within and outside the Queensland Government who have provided advice and assistance during the preparation of the Queensland Government Strategic Assessment coastal zone is gratefully acknowledged. An early draft version of this Strategic Assessment has been independently reviewed by Sinclair Knight Merz, to ensure the rigour of the assessment in accordance with the terms of reference. While some of the recommendations of this review have been addressed in this version of the Strategic Assessment, others could not be addressed within the short time between the finalisation of the review and the release of the Strategic Assessment for public consultation. Outstanding recommendations will be addressed during the public consultation period.

Acknowledgements

Jeff Seeney MP Deputy Premier and Minister For State Development, Infrastructure and Planning

Andrew Powell MPMinister for Environment and Heritage Protection

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, spanning more than 348 000 square kilometres of the continental shelf of Queensland. It is internationally and nationally recognised to have significant environmental, social, cultural and heritage values. The recognition of these values carries an obligation and responsibility to protect and conserve the values for the future.

The Australian and Queensland governments have entered into an agreement to complete a comprehensive strategic assessment of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA) and adjacent coastal zone. The comprehensive strategic assessment comprises two parts: The Great Barrier Reef Region Strategic Assessment, undertaken by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (the GBRMPA) addressing the marine environment; and the Great Barrier Reef Coastal Zone Strategic Assessment, undertaken by the Queensland Government. This report addresses the latter.

The coastal zone is defined as Queensland Coastal Waters, islands and inland areas to a distance of five kilometres or the 10 metres Australian Height Datum (AHD) contour, whichever is further. The AHD is the reference level adopted by the National Mapping Council of Australia, with 0.0 metres AHD approximately mean sea level.

The strategic assessment provides for review and assessment of the effectiveness of management arrangements at protecting the GBR’s World Heritage values as well as all other matters of national environmental significance (MNES) which are afforded protection under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act). The goal is to help identify, plan for and manage existing and emerging risks to the unique environmental values of the MNES GBR coastal zone.

This strategic assessment is the largest in scale ever to be undertaken. The GBR coastal zone encompasses two world and national heritage areas – the Wet Tropics and the Great Barrier Reef – and two Ramsar wetlands of international importance – Bowling Green Bay and Shoalwater/Corio Bay. Across these the GBR coastal zone supports 11 key threatened species, 38 key migratory species and two key threatened ecological communities. Given the vast area and array of species supported by the GBR coastal zone this assessment has adopted a ‘systems approach’. This enables targeted examination of the effectiveness of existing policies, plans and programs the Queensland Government uses to protect and manage MNES, including the outstanding universal value (OUV) of the World Heritage Areas (WHAs). It also provides a critique of how applicable the Queensland Government Program will be for protecting MNES over the next 25 years and how it will currently protects MNES, its expected performance over the next 25 years and how it will respond to emerging issues.

Two reports have been produced for the GBR coastal zone strategic assessment – a program report, which outlines the suite of policies, plans and programs being assessed, and this strategic

assessment report – which analyses how effective these policies, plans and programs are at protecting MNES, including OUV. The complementary strategic assessment being completed by the GBRMPA focusses on the marine values of the GBRWHA, the condition and trend of those values, impacts and effectiveness of management arrangements. This report, therefore, focuses primarily on the terrestrial values of the GBR coastal zone. Where there are areas of joint management or overlap in values, they are covered in both strategic assessment reports.

This GBR coastal zone assessment highlights some systemic long-term and chronic impacts on MNES that largely influence their future outlook, such as climate change, poor catchment water quality and the impacts of historical broadscale clearing. There are also a range of relatively small scale and very localised impacts identified, including urban, industrial and port development.

The systemic threats to MNES are similar to those experienced nationwide and internationally. Climate change, a dominant feature in the outlook for the GBR, will put pressure on threatened and migratory species as as extreme weather events become more frequent. The Queensland Government Program includes management strategies that focus on building health and resilience so that MNES can better adapt and respond to climate effects.

Broadscale clearing for agriculture that occurred in Queensland until 2006 resulted in significant loss and fragmentation of habitat. This impacted directly on migratory and threatened species habitat and reduced the extent of threatened ecological communities. However, today Queensland maintains the highest level of biodiversity of any state or territory in Australia. Landmark reforms in legislation and natural resource management programs have begun to slow the decline in biodiversity by providing mechanisms to achieve significant reductions in the loss of habitat and vegetation, and improvements in water quality.

Major expansion in agricultural production over the last 150 years has led to significant declines in the quality of water flowing through catchments and into the GBR lagoon, with elevated levels of sediment, nutrients, pesticides and other pollutants observed. This affects not only the GBRWHA, but also adjacent wetlands and the threatened species that rely on both habitats.

Poor water quality remains one of the most significant issues facing the GBR. The 2013 Scientific Consensus Statement prepared by over 40 leading scientists identified that the decline in water quality from catchment runoff is the major cause of the current poor state of many of the key ecosystems. It identified the three major risks as nitrogen, fine sediment, and pesticide discharge. It also identified that the major source of the key pollutants is broadscale agriculture and that other sources such as urban areas, ports and shipping are relatively small but may be locally and over short time periods highly significant. In terms of risks, the consensus statement noted

Executive Summary

that overall, nitrogen poses the greatest risk to coral because of its influence on crown of thorns starfish outbreaks, while sediment poses the greatest risk to seagrass.

Recognising the need to halt and reverse impacts from the decline in water quality the Queensland and Australian governments established the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (Reef Plan) in 2003. The most recent Reef Report Card (2011 data) showed that runoff of sediment, nutrients and pesticides to the reef is reducing – a massive achievement following a long history of declining water quality. Although such water quality impacts will take several decades to reverse the effects of long term exposure, significant improvements are evidence of the suitability of the Reef Plan to continue to address this issue.

The estimated annual average sediment load delivered to the reef reduced by six per cent and pesticides by 15 per cent since the baseline report card (2009 data). The total nitrogen load reduced by seven per cent; however dissolved nitrogen, the key pollutant of concern, reduced by 13 per cent. This is a result of significant uptake of improved land management, with 34 per cent of sugarcane growers, 17 per cent of graziers and 25 per cent of horticulture producers having adopted improved farm management practices. However, the latest report card also showed a decline in marine condition from moderate to poor as a result of much higher than normal river discharge and the effects of cyclone Yasi (a highly destructive Category 5 tropical cyclone which crossed the Great Barrier Reef and Coastal Zone in February 2011). This reinforces the need to strengthen the resilience of the reef to the impacts of natural disaster by controlling the impacts from land-based activities.

In terms of site specific impacts, population growth and economic development are expected to drive further urban, port and industrial development within the GBR coastal zone. This has potential to cause a number of impacts on MNES. Impacts may include further loss and fragmentation of habitat, and downstream impacts from poor water quality. Relative to climate change, land clearing and runoff from broadscale agriculture, these impacts are less significant and more localised. Understanding the scale and pathway of impacts provides the ability to target relevant management action.

This strategic assessment report provides evidence that demonstrates the Queensland Government Program is broadly effective in protecting MNES, including OUV of the WHAs. Queensland’s protected area estate is the cornerstone of protection for MNES. A large proportion (32 per cent) of the GBR coastal zone is within conservation areas. Eighty-nine per cent of the Wet Tropics WHA is contained in national parks, and large proportion of the Bowling Green Bay and Shoalwater/Corio Bay Ramsar wetlands are within terrestrial or marine protected areas (approximately 99 per cent and 80 per cent respectively). Ninety-six per cent of the area of the GBRWHA within the GBR coastal zone is within a marine protected area.

This review provides information demonstrating that Queensland Government’s Program is broadly effective at protecting MNES, including OUV of the WHAs. There is a strong legislative system in place which enshrines a hierarchy to ‘avoid, mitigate, offset’ potential impacts. There is also a strong system of monitoring and reporting in place, particularly for water quality, that underpins an adaptive management process enabling continuous improvement of the Program. Supporting this is a robust system facilitating identification of areas of importance for MNES, particularly through mapping of areas of significance. This mapping is integrated into regional planning, port planning and industrial planning, although not explicitly in all cases. This helps ensure that areas critical for MNES are avoided from the outset. Measures to mitigate impacts on MNES through development assessment and conditioning are also effective and often require proponents to go beyond the minimum standard to ensure impacts are minimised as far as possible. The Australian Government, through a bilateral agreement under the EPBC Act, already accredits Queensland Government’s process of assessing the impacts of individual developments on MNES. Compliance measures are in place to enforce approval conditions, backed by significant staffing resources. Through the existing Program, unacceptable impacts on MNES, including OUV should not occur.

This assessment has also identified some aspects of Queensland Program that are only partially effective at protecting MNES. This includes the current approach to offsets, which often delivers piecemeal outcomes. Recognising this, Queensland is proposing a new offsets policy aimed at delivering more strategic offsets that will have a net benefit for MNES by tackling the most significant threats.

Management of port development also represents an area where further improvement is needed. The draft Great Barrier Reef Ports Strategy demonstrates the government’s commitment to a planned and measured approach to future port development, which will ensure significant port development only occurs within existing port limits for the next ten years.

Building on the commitment to the Great Barrier Reef Ports’ Strategy, the Draft Queensland Ports Strategy 2013, released for public comment in October 2013, provides the Queensland Government’s blueprint for managing and improving the efficiency and environmental management of the state’s port network over the next decade. It will further strengthen the effectiveness of environmental management at ports. Key actions will focus on the concentration of port development around long-established major ports in Queensland, and will provide guidance for port master planning through consistent principles for environmental, social and economic planning.

This strategic assessment has also identified a number of information gaps or data deficiencies. In response, Queensland Government also recommends a number of other changes to the Program to more explicitly capture MNES in Queensland Government’s planning and development system. This will provide a clearer line of site from the international and national level down to the local level for management and protection of MNES.

The strengths of Queensland Government’s Program at protecting and managing MNES are summarised with supporting evidence within this report. The opportunities for improvement and adaptation identified by this review have directly informed the Strengthening Management and Forward Commitments sections in the strategic assessment report. With the range of policies, plans and programs in place, and the proposed changes and forward commitments, it is expected there will be improvements in the way the Program addresses impacts on MNES including OUV of the WHAs over its 25 year life.

With regard to reversing the decline in water quality being a major pressure on the health of the GBR, there is no doubt that this may take decades given the cumulative impacts of agricultural activity since settlement, however continual refinement of the Program and the adaptive management approach will ultimately result in an improved GBR environment. Continuing to build resilience in the system is the key to halting the decline, reversing the trend and minimising the all encompassing impacts of severe weather events, sea level rise and increased sea temperatures influenced by climate change.

1. Background .................................................161.1 The Great Barrier Reef ................................161.2 Two complementary strategic assessments 171.3 Objectives and purpose of the strategic

assessment ..................................................191.4 Scope of the Queensland Government strategic

assessment ..................................................191.5 Environmental management ........................211.6 Strategic assessment process .....................25

2. Social and economic context ....................302.1 Introduction ................................................302.2 Land use ....................................................322.3 Economic activities ....................................322.4 Social values ..............................................362.5 Indigenous heritage values ........................37

3. Assessment approach ...............................463.1 Introduction ................................................473.2 The approach .............................................47

3.3 Identifying MNES .......................................503.4 Methodology for selecting key MNES ........533.5 Extent, condition and trend ........................593.6 Pressures and impacts ..............................623.7 Program effectiveness ...............................633.8 Projected condition and trend ....................663.9 Data used and knowledge gaps .................693.10 Stakeholder engagement ...........................70

Contents

4. Extent, condition and trend ..................................764.1 Introduction ................................................764.2 Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area,

National Heritage Area and Marine Park....794.3 Wet Tropics World Heritage Area .............................................874.4 Bowling Green Bay Ramsar site ................924.5 Shoalwater and Corio Bays area Ramsar site .............................................................954.6 Nationally threatened ecological communities ...............................................984.7 Threatened species ...................................1044.8 Migratory species .......................................1294.9 Environmental processes trend .................1344.10 Summary of condition and trends of MNES

values .........................................................140

5. Pressures and impacts on MNES .............1525.1 Introduction ................................................1525.2 Activities .....................................................1565.3 Pressures and impacts on MNES ..............1675.4 Relative significance of activities, pressures and

impacts .......................................................1795.5 Cumulative impacts on MNES ...................1825.6 Knowledge gaps ........................................190

6. Program summary ...................................1996.1 Introduction .............................................. 1996.2 Foundational management ......................2016.3 Strengthening management.....................2036.4 Forward committments ............................205

7. Program effectiveness ............................2117.1 Introduction .............................................. 2117.2 Structure of this chapter ........................... 2127.3 Approach .................................................. 2127.4 Overview of key findings .......................... 2177.5 How well the Program identifies MNES and

OUV ......................................................... 2237.6 How well the Program assesses impacts on

MNES and OUV ....................................... 2257.7 How well the Program avoids impacts on

MNES ....................................................... 2297.8 How well the Program mitigates impacts on

MNES ....................................................... 2597.9 How well the Program offsets residual

impacts ..................................................... 2637.10 How well the Program enhances MNES .. 2687.11 How well the Program deals with impacts from

outside the program .................................279

8. Projected condition ..................................2858.1 Introduction .............................................. 2858.2 Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and

Marine Park .............................................. 2888.3 Wet Tropics World Heritage Area ............. 2908.4 Ramsar sites ............................................ 2928.5 Threatened ecological communities ........ 2958.6 Threatened and migratory species .......... 2978.7 Summary and conclusion ......................... 299

9. Adaptive management ..............................3039.1 Introduction ................................................3039.2 Adaptive management ...............................3049.3 Ecologically sustainable development .......3069.4 Governance ...............................................3079.5 Compliance.................................................3089.6 Monitoring ...................................................3129.7 Reporting.................................................3219.8 Independent scientific input .....................3239.9 The way forward .......................................323

10. Recommended changes and forward ............ commitments ........................................329

10.1 Introduction ..............................................32910.2 How recommended improvements were

identified .....................................................33010.3 Summary of findings from strategic

assessment report .....................................33110.4 The need to strengthen Queensland ...............

Government’s Program ..............................33310.5 Recomemnded improvements .................33410.6 GBRMPA’s recommended improvements... 33610.7 Forward commitments..........................341