Abstract:
Incremental increases to marine conservation areas in response to changing goals,
15 policy, threats or new information are common practice world-wide. Ningaloo Reef, in
16 north-western Australia, is protected by the Ningaloo Marine Park (State Waters) which
17 was expanded incrementally in 2004 so that 34% of the park now comprises no-take
18 sanctuary zones. To test the hypothesis that all habitats (benthic cover types) at
19 Ningaloo are actually protected at this 34% level, a systematic conservation planning
20 exercise was conducted using existing broad-scale habitat data (as a surrogate for
21 marine biodiversity) and C-Plan decision-support software. Though subtidal and
22 intertidal coral communities were found to be adequately protected, other habitats,
23 particularly those in deeper waters seaward of the reef did not attain the 34% target.
24 Efficient incremental additions to the sanctuary zones to allow increased representation
25 of these under-represented habitats were explored with C-Plan. It is recommended that
26 systematic conservation planning incorporating new biodiversity and social information
27 (now becoming available) be undertaken for the next iteration of the Ningaloo Marine
28 Park management plan. This analysis at Ningaloo Reef serves as a useful example of a
29 post-hoc systematic approach to guide incremental expansion of existing marine
30 protected areas in other parts of the world.
