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Regional Marine Planning - Implementing Ecosystem-Based Management of Australia's Oceans

Campbell Davies, Meredith Hall, Heather Deese and Barbara Musso

National Oceans Office, HOBART, AUSTRALIA

Theme: TH5

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Australia has sovereign rights to explore, exploit, conserve and manage the natural resources within one of the largest Exclusive Economic Zones in the world. Australia's Oceans Policy provides a framework to fulfil Australia’s responsibilities of protection and ecologically-sustainable management of Australia’s ocean jurisdictions. The National Oceans Office is responsible for leading the implementation of the policy through the development of Regional Marine Plans. The first regional marine plan is being developed for the South-east Region, which includes three Large Marine Domains (South-east, South Tasman Rise, Macquarie). Policy principles that guide the development of regional marine plans include ecosystem-based management and outcome-based planning. This contribution describes how these principles are being implemented in the South-east Regional Marine plan through the use of ecologically-based planning units and the development of a performance assessment system that includes quantitative objectives and performance indicators for the ecosystems of the South-east Marine Region.