THE REEF TRUST PARTNERSHIP
The Australian Government’s largest ever single investment in Reef protection
CREATION OF THE REEF TRUST PARTNERSHIP
In 2018, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation – the lead charity for the Reef – and the Australian Government’s Reef Trust created a landmark $443.3m partnership called the Reef Trust Partnership (RTP). The RTP is the Australian Government’s largest-ever single investment in reef protection and is dedicated to bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders including Traditional Owners, Reef managers, scientists, research organisations and local communities to significantly improve the health of the Great Barrier Reef.
Traditional Owner involvement
Together with Traditional Owners, the Foundation co-designed a landmark $51.8m Traditional Owner Reef Protection program under the RTP. The program was designed around four of the RTP’s main components including:
• Integrated Monitoring and Reporting
• Reef Restoration and Adaptation Science
• Water Quality (Healthy Water)
• Crown-of-Thorns Starfish Control Program
The Traditional Owner component forms the essential building blocks to fulfil longstanding aims and objectives. It does this by establishing and funding robust First Nations-devised initiatives and projects that are specifically designed to meet their needs. This component also initiates the necessary shift by enhancing governance procedures, highlighting the unique, comprehensive viewpoints that Traditional Owners contribute to improve conservation results and bolster the management of the Reef.
Unprecedented systemic change
Early in the RTP, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation’s Traditional Owner Reef Protection team made three key decisions that would enable this work to stand strong and create systemic change at a scale and complexity that had never been attempted. They:
1. Created a Traditional Owner Advisory Group (TOAG) and Traditional Owner-led Technical Working Groups (TWG) to co-design programs that best suited the needs and aspirations of Traditional Owners and removed many of the common barriers to funding. The Foundation worked hard to design – not on behalf of, but with – Traditional Owners across key component programs.
2. Elevated the voices and contributions of Traditional Owner lived experiences – as a central pillar in the design and delivery of the RTP, Traditional Owners are at the heart of design, delivery and decision making.
3. Established a Traditional Owner Future Fund – fulfilling an important aspiration and providing sustainable funding to support long-term outcomes.
Real, positive results
These decisions have created the conditions to facilitate the achievement of a strong Traditional Owner governance framework across the RTP, commence a genuine co-design process with Traditional Owners, support on-ground Reef protection outcomes and deliver positive impacts over the life of the RTP and beyond.