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.