August 1995 Newsletter

OURS TO USE WISELY...

Understanding human use in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park requires knowledge of the interaction between the resource and those that use it. Postgraduate student Barbara Breen, is currently collecting information from groups in the Cairns Section of the marine park about what people require from the Reef.

Some of the questions this research is addressing include the following:

• What are high value areas in the Cairns region for different user groups?

• Which social, biological and geographical characteristics of the reefs are important to different user groups?

• How much of the Reef is available for different types of reef use under current and predicted levels of use?

• How and where are conflicts likely to occur between user groups and conservation issues?

• Can the availability of reefs for different user groups be predicted from existing biological and geographical survey data?

• Conversely, can the biological status of reefs be predicted from information provided by reef users?

For the past year, Barbara Breen has been gathering existing data on the biological status and physical characteristics of several reefs in the region. This information has been provided by the Australian Institute of Marine Science, the Great Barrier Reef Marine park Authority, James Cook University, the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage, the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries and the Royal Australian Navy. The information is being integrated in a Geographic Information System which allows this information to be linked to individual reefs.

Information concerning human use of the Reef is being collected through a survey of Reef users visiting on a regular basis. This questionnaire is a consistent and cost effective way of gathering information on the status of Reef resources that already exists in the minds of people who visit many different reefs every day. It aims to assess the current status of the reefs, the quality of sites, conflicts people may have encountered, crowding and what people require from the Reef as a resource.

In this way, social and economic requirements of different interest groups can be linked to biophysical data on what resources are available for use. Hopefully, this will lead to a better understanding of the status of reef resources in terms of their availability for different human uses and their ecological viability.

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