Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility (MTSRF)

The aim of the Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility (MTSRF or ‘the Facility’) is to ensure the health of North Queensland’s public environmental assets - particularly the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and its catchments, tropical rainforests including the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area (WTWHA), and the Torres Strait - through the generation and transfer of world-class research and sharing knowledge.

Protection of the health of these environmental assets is a joint responsibility of governments, community and industry and needs the commitment of each if it is to be achieved.  The MTSRF outcomes will support each of those parties in their endeavours to protect, conserve, sustainably use and manage North Queensland’s public environmental assets.

In March 2006, the then Australian Government Minister for the Environment and Heritage approved a Research Investment Strategy for the Facility, and an Annual Research Plan 2006-2007 (‘the Plan’) describes the work to be done in 2006-2007 to achieve the goals of the Strategy during its first year of operation.  The research conducted through the Facility must be for public benefit and be targeted towards delivering useful products that support the health of these environmental assets.

The Annual Research Plan 2006-2007 outlines the specific tasks, products, budgets and staff for Research Programmes developed for each Research Theme identified in the Research Investment Strategy:

1. Status of the ecosystems: understanding the condition, trend and interdependencies of environmental assets of the North Queensland region; developing methods to support ongoing regular assessment and reporting; and developing methods to identify priorities for action.

2. Risks and threats to the ecosystems: understanding the threats to, and their impacts on the environment and hence the North Queensland region, and developing options to mitigate them.

3. Halting and reversing decline of water quality: understanding the causes and effects of changing water quality and water resource use in North Queensland’s coastal catchments; developing options for improving practices, reducing risks and mitigating adverse impacts; and developing ways to measure the effectiveness of regulation, management and other actions to halt and reverse declines. This goal supports the objectives of the Australian and Queensland Government’s Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (Reef Plan).

4. Sustainable use and management of natural resources: understanding the current and potential industry and community uses of biodiversity and natural resources with respect to ecological, social and economic sustainability; and providing information and options to assist North Queensland managers, industries and communities to optimise the use of biodiversity resources and minimise adverse impacts of use where they occur.

5. Enhancing delivery: Increasing the relevance and adoption of research in policy development, management applications and use practices; supporting effective data exchange and adoption of data standards; funding the delivery of relevant reports in the public interest; providing system wide overviews through the integration of biophysical studies of the environmental assets of North Queensland and the integration of social and economic research into these; and providing access to data and knowledge for organisations and the public.