Dr Beverley Clarke1, Ms Patricia von Baumgarten2
1Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, 2SA Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources , Adelaide , Australia
Abstract
South Australia’s 2004 Living Coast Strategy has well passed its five year assignment. It set out the State Government’s environmental policy directions for ecologically sustainable management of South Australia’s coastal, estuarine and marine environments. The Living Coast Strategy promised and delivered some good initiatives. However, it also promised new coastal legislation, a marine planning framework, and an estuary policy that never eventuated. No new state-wide coastal strategy has been developed to replace it. For eight years South Australia has been functioning without strategic direction for its coastal, marine and esturaine environments. The SA Branch of the Australian Coastal Society (ACS) triggered a conversation about this situation during the SA state coastal conference in November 2017. Attendees at the conference helped to design forward looking strategic direction for coastal management in South Australia. The ACS SA branch has worked through these ideas and prepared a “SA Coastal Management Agenda” or manifesto, documenting key recommendations for a way forward. This presentation will elaborate on the process and the outcomes of this activity.
Biography
Beverley Clarke is a social scientist particularly interested in how people influence environmental management. She has been investigating how both formal (governance) and informal (cultural and social) processes affect decision making processes and outcomes for the environment. Dr Clarke has been conducting research in the area of environmental planning and management, specialising in coasts, over the last 15 years researching topics such as community participation, capacity building, the policy implications of sea level rise, and the social dimensions of natural resource management.