Integrated Monitoring & Reporting in Sustainability

The Reef 2050 Plan is the overarching Australian and Queensland governments' action plan to work with partners to protect and manage the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Within it, there are more than 330 interconnected institutions and instruments working to implement the policies and programs.
As a part of the Plan, an Integrated Monitoring & Reporting project, led by Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and James Cook University (JCU), aimed to develop a way to monitor the health of the long term Reef governance system. This is jointly-led by Professor Allan Dale (JCU) and Professor Karen Vella (QUT).

The project published two important publications in an international journal in Sustainability. These were part of the Special Issue New Science and Management Approaches to Support Coral Reefs in a Time of Rapid Climate Change. 

The first publication, Health of the Governance System for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef 2050 Plan: A First Benchmark, presents the results of the health of the governance system, found to be emergent to maturing, but strong by global standards. 

Within the system, there are notable strengths in marine park management and global engagement with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It also identified weaknesses such as the need for greater power-sharing with Traditional Owners, the need to rebuild trust with the farming and the fishing sectors. The research was informed from data gained through the interviews with over 48 experts and five focal workshops to provide this first benchmark of the Plan's governance. It is available via open source, click here.

The second publication, Deep Deliberation to Enhance Analysis of Complex Governance Systems: Reflecting on the Great Barrier Reef Experience, reflected on the methodology applied for the governance system benchmark, outlining a new deliberative approach to evaluating governance in complex socio-ecological systems.

Using the GBR case study, multiple lines of evidence were used to build a framework comprising twenty governance attributes grouped into four clusters: (i) coherence, (ii) connectivity & capacity, (iii) knowledge application, and (iv) operational governance.

Stakeholders, including government agencies, Traditional Owners, and industries, participated in structured deliberations to explore and discuss the “health” of each attribute and to identify priorities for improvement. The process is designed to be repeatable over time, enabling monitoring, adaptive learning, and incremental reform of governance systems. The article is available through open source, click here.

Professor Dale said, "These publications represent an important global step in understanding how well the Reef 2050 governance system is working. By benchmarking its strengths and weaknesses, and by creating a repeatable way to monitor its health, we can build the transparency, trust, and shared learning needed to strengthen the governance system over time. This work is not just about the Great Barrier Reef; it provides a model for how complex governance systems worldwide can adapt to the challenges of climate change and sustainability."

November 2025