With the Great Ocean Road region attracting more than twice the visitors of the Red Centre and Great Barrier Reef combined, Nature Impact Collective members were shocked to learn recently that no cohesive biodiversity monitoring exists along this iconic stretch of coastline.
This critical knowledge gap threatens the waters between Anglesea and Warrnambool, as without ecological baseline data and annual monitoring, the cumulative impacts – from tourism , climate change and other activities – won’t be detected early enough to inform timely action.
To bridge this gap, the Otways-based Conservation Ecology Centre has designed the Otways Marine Ecosystem Resilience (OMER) Initiative. This collaboration unites the scientific expertise of the Conservation Ecology Centre with the leadership and deep-time knowledge of Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation and a dedicated network of community volunteers. Together they are building a robust, scalable monitoring network across 20 key coastal sites.
Nature Impact Collective members were deeply impressed by the work of Conservation Ecology Centre CEO and Founder Lizzie Corke and her team when they spent a day with them last month. Each member has chosen to give $10,000 to the OMER initiative for a total of $50,000.
We invite other funders to match this funding to enable the Conservation Ecology Centre to:
- Expand coastal monitoring sites up to 20
- Work closely with the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation to respectfully integrate Cultural Knowledge
- Facilitate workshops to develop locally informed, community led action plans
- Advocate to and share knowledge with government agency partners to secure funded management actions.
Interested funders are encouraged to reach out to Nature Impact Collective CEO Esther Abram for further information and contacts: [email protected]
Photo: Castle Cove, by Michael Cahill