Threat and Risk Assessment for the New South Wales Marine Estate

Requirements

Customer: NSW Government (Department of Industry)

Threat and Risk Assessment (TARA) is a key element of the NSW Government’s approach to the sustainable management of the NSW marine estate. The approach considers and prioritises the social, cultural, economic and environmental threats to community benefits derived from the marine estate to inform future management.

We were engaged by the Department of Industry on behalf of the Marine Estate Management Authority (MEMA) to provide strategic risk assessment advice for the TARA process for a pilot project for the Hawkesbury Marine Shelf Bioregion and then for the State-wide marine estate. 

Solutions

• Independent facilitation;
• Risk assessment and management;
• Expert knowledge elicitation; and
• Integrated reporting and synthesis across environmental, social and economic disciplines.

Benefits

In close collaboration with officers from four State Government departments, external experts, and the independent Marine Estate Expert Knowledge Panel, we developed and delivered a range of workshops and meetings to assess risks to environmental assets and social and community benefits of the marine estate.

The findings of the workshops were documented through a comprehensive TARA report for the Hawkesbury Shelf Bioregion (released as part of a discussion paper for the overall project in 2016) and a State-wide assessment report.

The TARA reports were regarded as a key input to the future management of the NSW marine estate.