Since 2007, Noosa Shire has held UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status in recognition of efforts to harmonise sustainable natural resource management with urban and economic development. Community participation is crucial to ensure the Noosa Biosphere Reserve conservation planning is driven by its best interest and knowledge. Through consultations we will select indicators to track progress and monitor success of conservation and community efforts across the Noosa Biosphere, and keep all stakeholders involved.
The project intends to consult the traditional custodians of the land within and surrounding the Noosa Biosphere – the Kabi Kabi and the Jinibara People, and multiple stakeholders, including governance, water, land, agriculture, and wildlife management authorities and organisations; sustainability, education, recreation/tourism, business, culture, and community groups and associations; academics; land managers; residents; tourists; and any other individuals, authorities or organisations with associations to the Noosa Biosphere.
Through participatory research and following international standard principles in monitoring and evaluation, we aim to:
- Identify priorities for conservation, people and sustainable development; main threats, causes and potential solutions.
- Select priority environmental, socio-economic and management indicators, using an innovative new holistic method for ranking their relative importance to one another.
- Make an initial assessment of top-priority selected indicators as benchmarks for future progress.
Proponent
UniSC / Forest Research Institute
Research team: PhD candidate Rodrigo Oliveira; Professor Andy Marshall; Dr Romane Cristescu; Dr. John Meadows; Prof. Claudia Baldwin; Mr Mark Annandale.
