CRC REEF RESEARCH CENTRE TECHNICAL REPORT No. 29

Understanding Public Perceptions Of The Great Barrier Reef And Its Management.

David Green, CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd
Gianna Moscardo, CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd
Tanya Greenwood, CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd
Philip Pearce, CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd
Matt Arthur, CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd
Amanda Clark, CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd
Barbara Woods, CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd

FOREWORD

The Great Barrier Reef's status as a World Heritage Area recognises the region's outstanding universal value to the world's natural and cultural heritage. Such status places responsibility upon the people of Australia through the agency of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to ensure the Great Barrier Reef is protected, used wisely, understood and enjoyed by all people now and in the future.

Successful management of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and World Heritage Area by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority requires the application of tools such as zoning provisions, plans of management, permitting and public education, interpretation and extension.

Important information to be considered by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority when developing, implementing and or assessing management strategies and tools is how people perceive the Great Barrier Reef, their experiences of it and their understanding of how and why it is managed.

The need for such information was identified at a workshop in 1997 between Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority staff and the CRC Reef Research project team for CRC Task 2.2.3. The study was undertaken as part of CRC Task 2.2.3 (Evaluation/Design for Interpretation).

The study involved interviewing people who live adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef as well as those who live in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. This is in recognition of the need for managers to understand the socially and geographically diverse communities of interest associated with the Great Barrier Reef. The report highlights the wide range of perceptions between those who have experienced the Reef firsthand and more remote residents of southern capital cities, who have not visited the Reef and are likely to base their opinions on television news reports.

The study upon which the report is based is the first of a series of similar studies that will be conducted by the CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd. This series will provide reef managers with regular updates on information about public perceptions of the Great Barrier Reef and its management and indicates further initiatives for inclusion in media and education strategies for the Authority and the CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd.

Such a regular reporting program to be undertaken by the CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd recognises the need for managers to be informed of shifts in public perception and provide an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of management strategies. Such a reporting series marked by this first report will ensure the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and World Heritage Area continues to be managed in the interests of all people now and into the future.

James Innes
Project Manager
Socio-cultural and Economic Information

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This study is part of a larger brief within the CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd to contribute to the evaluation and design of effective communication activities with reef users and the wider community. The study is the result of discussions with Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority staff who identified the need to establish existing public levels of knowledge about the Great Barrier Reef.

The results described in this report are based on a 1003 person randomised telephone survey conducted with participants in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, as well as with residents of Queensland living adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef. The overall response rate from qualified persons contacted was 58%, a figure that lies within the acceptable boundaries of public surveying methodology on environmental topics.

The information collected through the telephone interviews included the respondents' experience with the Great Barrier Reef, reef images, an assessment of the perceived current and future state of the reef, threats to the reef, attitudes towards reef protection, respondents' information sources about the reef and some key sociodemographic measures.

The results of the study are presented in four segments. The first section details an overall sample response to the questions. The second section explores differences in responses according to the respondents' region of residence, while the third and fourth sections profile respectively visitors with and with out GBR experience and respondents who have an optimistic as opposed to a pessimistic view of the reef's future environmental status.

The results for the overall sample included the following key findings:

• Responses of the total sample:
  Forty-three percent of the total sample had been to the GBR between one and five times, with 40 % having never been. The three most popular reasons for not visiting were that respondents felt a GBR trip was too expensive, they were too old to go, or the GBR was simply not appealing.
  The four most popular activities on the GBR were snorkelling, swimming, fishing and SCUBA diving.
  The three words used most to describe an image of the reef were beautiful, splendid and unique, all of which can be related to World Heritage Values. There is a tendency for respondents to be pessimistic about the future of the reef (see section below). Overall, the four core threats to the reef's future were seen as pollution, general human impact, tourism, and the Crown-of-Thorns starfish. The greatest impact is seen as coming from the Crown-of-Thorns, agricultural run-off, commercial fishing and urban/industrial activity. Ninety-one percent of the sample identified the reef as a World Heritage Area, with 69% believing the Australian government is responsible for it's management but 29% believing that the United Nations is responsible for management. The five key information sources overall were, in order, television, friends and relatives, personal experience, magazines and newspapers.

• Regional differences
  Sydney residents expressed greater interest in SCUBA diving than other groups with the common activities of snorkelling, swimming and fishing popular for all. In relation to the perceived state of the reef, Melbourne residents were most likely to say they did not know, while Canberra residents were the most pessimistic. Residents living adjacent to the reef were the most likely to say that the reef is in a good or very good condition.
  Local residents identify agricultural run-off and overfishing as the biggest threats. Sydney and Canberra residents see tourism and pollution as being the biggest threats and as having the most impact. These differences between regions are often of the order of 10 to 20 % of respondents.

• Reef Experience differences
  While GBR experience is greater for local residents, the general variable of GBR experience across Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne residents also produces some findings of note. Respondents who have been to the GBR are more likely to describe it as splendid or tremendous, but are slightly more pessimistic about its future health, perhaps because they give its current state a higher pristine rating than non-visitors.
  Experienced GBR visitors are less concerned with both the threat of pollution/rubbish and tourism and show more accurate answers concerning what activities are permitted on the reef.

• Optimists and Pessimists
  For this study optimists are those who believe the reef will be in the same or a better condition than it is now in ten years time. By implication pessimists are those who believe it will be worse.

Experienced reef visitors are marginally more likely to be pessimists (62% to 58%). Optimists tend to give the state of the reef as it is now a higher rating than pessimists.
The chief threats and impacts guiding pessimist's attitudes are pollution/rubbish and human impacts, particularly urban and industrial activity. Additionally, pessimists also rate all other items as somewhat more likely to cause impacts that do optimists.

THIS PUBLICATION IS CITED AS:
Green, D., Moscardo, G., Greenwood, T., Pearce, P., Arthur, M., Clark, A., & Woods, B. (1999)
Understanding Public Perceptions of the Great Barrier Reef and its Management.
CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd
Technical Report No. 29
Townsville; CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd, 64 pp.

ISBN 1 876054 34 4

A full copy of this report may be obtained from the author(s), and through the following libraries: