Blue Governance Lab
Marine Community Futures: Northwest Tasmania
What have we been up to?
The first data collection step of our project is complete after we undertook an online and in-person survey investigating what marine and coastal areas are important to residents of the Circular Head and King Island regions, and why. If you want to hear about why we undertook this survey - check out the video below:
What is the project about?
This project aims to understand how regional development in the oceans and coasts can be achieved while still considering community well-being and community visions for the future of our marine environment. In particular, we want to help Tasmanian marine industries to make and monitor considered decisions about regional development and community well-being futures.
In this project we will:
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Identify and map the values and interests that communities of the North West region of Tasmania have regarding the marine environment;
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Examine where, and in what ways, local preferences in regards to well-being can be considered in North West Tasmanian regional development decision-making;
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And, ask how marine industries might be better held to account for ensuring well-being is considered in their planning processes and ongoing operations.
Why is it important?
The Blue Economy, as an environmental and economic development strategy, has gained acceptance and importance worldwide. It has arisen from the globally increasing interest in the growth of water-based activities. This may include more 'traditional' activities such as fishing, or more 'emerging' activities such as renewable energy generation. We (society) are becoming increasingly interested in the effects of such changing use of the marine and coastal environment.
We need to be able to discuss the effects that these developments have - particularly on us and our interests. And, we need to know that this will be considered by those who make decisions regarding how the oceans and coasts, an area that belongs to all of us (or to none of us), are used.
Outputs
Publication
Emerging functions of the wellbeing concept in regional development scholarship: A review