Project Leader: Dr James Butler, CSIRO Sustainable
Ecosystems
Project 1.2.1 will develop
the methods needed for acquiring the necessary data for an
integrated report card on the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area and
North Queensland's coastal catchments. Scientists will work
in close collaboration with the Wet Tropics Management Authority
and FNQ NRM Ltd to identify data requirements, develop monitoring
methods and then implement a monitoring protocol that can be used
to produce an integrated report card. In the process of doing
this, the Project aims to develop tools for measuring, monitoring
and reporting, and identifying priorities for management
action. It is intended that the Project will collaborate with
the scoping project for the Integrated Report Cards being completed
for the Great Barrier Reef, Torres Strait and Water Quality
programs.
The overall objective of Project 1.2.1 is to
provide the knowledge and methods needed for accurate and
up-to-date State of the Region reporting on the key
ecosystem service and biodiversity assets of North Queensland, to
support future iteration of Natural Resource Management planning
and the management of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area,
through:
-
a synthesis of current knowledge and identification of gaps for
key biological and environmental assets;
-
filling knowledge gaps (in conjunction with field surveys being
carried out in Project 1.4.3 and Project 2.6.2; and
-
designing and testing a monitoring program to track the status
and trends of key environmental assets.
