Add your name to protect NSW marine life | MPA-39 ACT NSW MPA Save Our Sanctuaries - Website

Add your name to protect NSW marine life

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Dear Ministers Sharpe and Moriarty,

I’m contacting you as a community member of New South Wales who is deeply concerned about the future of vulnerable marine life and habitats in our state.

NSW is home to an exceptional array of marine life, much of which is under threat from the impacts of climate change, fishing and development. The protected area network is not fit for purpose and is inadequate to ensure the marine environment is resilient to these threats.

Sadly, the NSW Government’s proposal to continue with a business-as-usual approach to the marine environment is putting our marine life at risk.

The NSW Government has proposed to continue to deliver the Coalition Government’s Marine Estate Management Strategy under changes to the Biodiversity Conservation Act review. It is not fit for purpose. The old marine strategy is out of date and out of touch. It seeks alternative options to Marine Protected Areas, the best tool we have to ensure marine life is safeguarded for future generations.

What’s the solution?

Look to the Australian Marine Conservation Society commissioned-report, authored by Professor of Marine Ecology David Booth, University of Technology Sydney and Marine Ecologist Giglia Beretta to assess the current approach to the protection of the NSW marine environment.

The report, ‘How to create a world class Marine Protected Area system — getting New South Wales back on track’ (October 2023), provides a number of science-based recommendations.

I ask you to commit to providing better protection for the NSW marine environment by:

- Aim higher. The current marine park network does not give our coasts and oceans the protection they so desperately need. The NSW Government urgently needs to prioritise increasing protection,

- Create a Marine Protected Area planning process that is based on scientific evidence and world’s best practice,

- Ensure all of NSW’s diversity is given some protection in marine protected areas, including the Twofold and Hawkesbury Shelf Bioregions,

- Prioritise the restoration, retention, and expansion of NSW’s marine sanctuary zones, fully protected areas that bolster conservation outcomes,

- Get the right experts in the Government to lead and make decisions. Experts in conservation and biodiversity within the Environment Department should oversee Marine Protected Areas in NSW,

- Invest in compliance, education, and monitoring: work with the local community and stakeholders to manage our protected area network.

Will you create a new vision for our marine ecosystems?

A brighter future for NSW’s marine life and habitats is possible, delivering enormous economic and social benefits by restoring, retaining and expanding NSW's protected area network.

The NSW Labor Government has an immediate opportunity to achieve this by creating and implementing a new vision for the state’s Marine Protected Area (MPA) network that can better protect our marine ecosystems by helping to safeguard against threats, including from rapidly heating waters, development and fishing.

Labor has a long and rich legacy when it comes to protecting Australia’s oceans. Previously, NSW Labor governments have created five new marine parks (Jervis Bay, Lord Howe Island, Cape Byron and Port Stephens-Great Lakes and Batemans Bay). The Minns Labor government now has the opportunity to advance that legacy.

I ask you to prioritise creating a new way forward to ensure the protection of the NSW marine environment that is focused on biodiversity conservation, which can create a protected area network that will build the necessary resilience into our coasts and oceans.

Thank you.

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