Reef Community Action Plan June 2022 Update

Cape York Peninsula is one of six Queensland regions that has developed a Reef Community Action Plan for the community to take part in meaningful local action to benefit the Reef and local environment. This Community Action Plan (CAP) was developed through a review of existing plans combined with the contributions of Traditional Owners, youth and community members at seven workshops from October 2020 to January 2021.

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South-east Cape York Reef Community Action Plan

Cape York Peninsula is an important and iconic place. Cape York’s eastern catchments flow directly to the top third of the world heritage Great Barrier Reef (GBR), including ten of the Reef’s 30 unique bioregions. The Cape York region has exceptional, intact wilderness areas and a rich cultural landscape, with Traditional Custodians maintaining strong connections to country.

Yet there are also growing pressures on the region. Visitors bring litter and waste and damage cultural and natural areas. Roads and other disturbances cause erosion that washes sediment into waterways. Land managers continue to tackle the spread of weeds and feral animals. Severe cyclones and extreme weather, driven by climate change, threaten the health of corals and coastal vegetation. There is a need to address these pressures and take meaningful local action to preserve the values of the region.

Cape York Peninsula is one of five Reef regions developing a CAP, with a main focus in the south-east (Endeavour, Jeannie and Normanby catchments). The purpose of this CAP was to build on previous plans and combine the voices of Traditional Owners, community members and youth to identify priorities for practical, on-ground activities that will benefit the local marine and coastal environment.

This Community Action Plan (CAP) aims to:

1. Establish shared goals for community Reef protection
2. Identify critical projects to strengthen and accelerate community Reef protection

To build the CAP, Cape York NRM and South Cape York Catchments held seven workshops from October 2020 to January 2021. At the workshops, participants shared strategies for community action, prioritised these strategies and collaboratively developed ‘roadmaps’ to map out how their priority strategies will work.

This CAP documents the community’s proposed priority strategies to benefit the local marine and coastal environment, as well as the key values and pressures relevant for local action. We provide a prospectus of community projects developed during the workshops in Appendix 4.

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Appendix 1: Workshop Attendees

This resource contains a list of attendees as well as which workshop they attended.

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Appendix 2: Workshop Photos

This resource contains photos taken at planning workshops.

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Appendix 3: Project roadmaps

This resource contains a series of roadmaps that were developed at planning workshops.

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Appendix 4: South-east Cape York Reef Community Action Plan Project Prospectus

Cape York Peninsula is an important region. Its eastern catchments are highly intact compared with other coastal regions in Queensland and flow directly to the top third of the World Heritage Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Over 100,000 people visit the region each year, and the health of the environment is of great importance to local communities.

The community have identified many pressures that are impacting the health of the Reef and coastal areas, including erosion, littering, weeds and unsustainable hunting. Cape York NRM and South Cape York Catchments held seven workshops from October 2020 to January 2021 to develop a Community Action Plan (CAP). The CAP identifies priority strategies to address these pressures and provide benefits to the marine and coastal environment.

This Project Prospectus details 13 priority strategies developed at the CAP workshops, which fit
into four themes: 

• Reducing visitor impacts and restoring country
• Engaging youth to care for the Reef, coasts and catchments
• Restoring customary care of turtle and dugong populations
• Strengthening heritage protections and management practices

These strategies represent the priorities of CAP workshop participants, including Traditional Owners, ranger groups, local government, scientists, NRM officers and other community members. Importantly, these strategies may not reflect the views of all community members and organisations in the region. The strategies presented here are also not intended to be comprehensive, and other activities not listed here may be required to support or enable implementation of the strategies.

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