Background to the Catchment to Reef Project
In 2002, CRC Reef and Rainforest CRC were awarded a joint Supplementary
Grant from the CRC Program for three years to develop new protocols and
tools to identify, mitigate water quality problems and to assess the health
of aquatic ecosystems in the Wet Tropics and Great Barrier Reef World
Heritage Areas. This integrated catchment to reef approach aims to minimise
the downstream effects of agriculture and improve the ecosystem health
of the GBR lagoon and its feeder catchments. This additional project (which
will become Project C7 in Program C) will provide the tools needed by
landholders, industry and other stakeholders to monitor the effects of
land use changes and restoration on water quality.
This project dovetails well with the core themes of the Natural Heritage
Trust Mark 2 (NHT2) - biodiversity, sustainable use of land and water,
and capacity-building – and matches the needs of the regional body
responsible for developing the regional plan for natural resource management
in the Wet Tropics, the Natural Resource Management Board (Wet Tropics)
Inc. (NRM Board).
To provide critical information of relevance to industry and management
in relation to the following problems:
- The export of nutrients, sediments and other contaminants into near
coastal waters and the GBR lagoon, the world’s largest reef system,
has increased massively since European settlement, severely impacting
on the viability and condition of these ecosystems and the industries
that depend on them. Approximately 200 nearshore reefs in the Wet Tropics
and Whitsundays are under immediate, direct pressure.
- Runoff of excess nutrients, sediments and agricultural chemicals
is also severely impacting the river catchments and wetland ecosystems
that feed into the GBR lagoon and threatens the ecology of these systems,
their biodiversity and their capacity to cleanse water entering the
sea.
- This problem of water quality from catchment to reef, is widely recognised
as one of Australia’s most pressing and challenging environmental
issues.
- The Commonwealth Government has established long-term targets for
improving water quality in the GBR lagoon and will need effective tools
for monitoring the status and trends of water quality entering the GBRWHA.
- While new institutional arrangements and policy frameworks are required
to bring about effective changes in coastal and marine ecosystems, it
is imperative that tools be developed immediately to both improve the
quality and ecological integrity of terrestrial and aquatic systems
and monitor the effectiveness of those changes.
The Catchment to Reef Steering Committee will be established to manage
the Catchment to Reef project. This will comprise the CEOs of both CRCs
and management level representatives from stakeholder organisations including
Griffith University, JCU, AIMS, WTMA, GBRMPA and the NRM Board. The Steering
Committee will be chaired at alternate meetings by the two CEOs. Coastal
CRC and Tropical Savanna CRC, and CSIRO will be invited to send observers.
Strategic guidance will be provided by the Governing Boards of Reef and
Rainforest CRCs. This will be facilitated by organising back to back Board
Meetings at least once a year.
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