A brief summary of SELTMP 2013

The SELTMP 2013 described important social and economic components of the Great Barrier Reef system and represented an unprecedented insight into the ways in which people use and depend on the Reef, the benefits that they derive, and how they perceive, value and relate to the Reef and each other. The design of the SELTMP 2013 was highly collaborative and based on latest scientific developments, which meant that data was cutting-edge, information could be well-translated into knowledge and could directly feed into management processes.

The strengths of the SELTMP 2013 were that issues of salience, legitimacy and credibility were given the highest priority.  Efforts were made to provide exceptional quality technical data embedded within a process that was transparent, participatory (co-produced) and regionally relevant. The design of the SELTMP was regarded as a co-production between researchers, government, industry and community. As a result, the SELTMP was accepted as a feasible mechanism by which to deliver information on the human dimension to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA). The co-production approach involved establishing a series of advisory groups made up of local and regional experts and representatives of key stakeholder groups.

Firstly, a high level steering committee of only six members was established to ensure that that the program was policy relevant and true to its contractual commitments yet sufficiently flexible to deliver on stakeholder needs. The steering committee met two times a year and was chaired by a representative from the GBRMPA, who was a key end user of the SELTMP data.

Secondly, a Scientific and Stakeholder Advisory Panel (SSAP) was also established comprising 22 representative members across community, government, research and industry.  Initially the SSAP met twice a year, but once established it only met annually. The purpose of the SSAP was to engage high level potential end-users of the research and maximise the relevance of the SELTMP to the broad range of stakeholders in the region.

Thirdly, technical working groups for each of the major sectors of commercial fishing, marine tourism, coastal communities, recreation, and ports and shipping as well as technical working groups to advise on cross-cutting issues of drivers of change and wellbeing were established. The seven working groups comprised technical experts from community, government, research and industry. The groups met regularly but less formally, as agreed on by group members. Some groups comprised only a small number of members (e.g. four people in the Ports and Shipping working group), whilst others comprised larger numbers (e.g. 25 people in the Tourism working group). During the initial meetings, the groups were encouraged to highlight their own internal issues and priorities and discuss how the availability of social and economic data might be useful. Trust and effective relationships within each group were important to establish.

The working groups were instrumental in selecting and prioritising the initial list of variables and indicators to be monitored. In part, the working groups were used to identify the human dimension indicators that would be monitored. Working groups were asked to develop a ‘wish list’ of indicators. Members of the groups understood that not all indicators on their ‘wish list’ would necessarily be monitored, and that whether the indicators were chosen or not depended on their feasibility as well as whether there was scientific rationale for them. This rationale was provided by a formal monitoring framework that was developed concurrently.

The formal monitoring framework was based on the DPSIR model (Drivers – Pressures – State- Impact – Response) that founded the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Indicator groups in the SELTMP were categorised as; (i) resource use and dependency, (ii) ecosystem benefits and well-being, and (iii) drivers of change (indirect and direct drivers), each of which are described below (Figure 1). The adapted SELTMP framework enabled data needs and gaps to be identified, and guided the process to decide which indicators selected by the advisory panels (the ‘wish list’) would be most informative and feasible to monitor.

Data representing each indicator group was provided either through existing regional datasets (secondary data), or through survey work (Primary data). Working group members were asked to assist SELTMP staff to identify and access existing datasets. In sum, the SELTMP research team worked to deliver data that represented the human dimension of the region as determined by a “top down” scientific framework and by a “bottom up” participatory process.

The SELTMP conceptual framework based on the DPSIR framework and Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Framework. The human dimension of the Great Barrier Reef is represented by the four components (in light blue): A. Use and Dependency, B. Human Wellbeing, C. Capacity and Context, and D. Use and Development.  It suggests that the level of human and community wellbeing is determined, in part, by how people use and depend on the Reef (“A” in Figure 2). Human and community wellbeing (“B”) influences the Reef (Ecosystem State) by influencing the social and economic context or indirect drivers within the system (“C”), within which direct drivers are allowed or not allowed to occur (“D”). Opportunities for strategies and interventions that can halt, reverse, or change a process exist at several points within the cycle (Assessment 2005).  Taken from Marshall et al. 2016.