Power to the People, Power to the Reef: Harnessing Community Capital to Scale Adaption Delivery in the Great Barrier Reef

Ananya Majumdar (), Rachel Eberhard, Karen Vella, Adam Smith, Ryan Donnelly, Darren Foster, Dorean Erhart, Trevor Meldrum, Peppi Iovanella, Olivia Brodhurst, Diane Tarte and Daniel Kimberley
Additional contact information
Ananya Majumdar: School of Architecture and Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point Campus, Brisbane City, QLD 4000, Australia
Rachel Eberhard: Eberhard Consulting, Dutton Park, QLD 4102, Australia
Karen Vella: School of Architecture and Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point Campus, Brisbane City, QLD 4000, Australia
Adam Smith: Reef Ecologic, Townsville, QLD 4810, Australia
Ryan Donnelly: Resilient Reefs Foundation, Fitzroy Island, QLD 4871, Australia
Darren Foster: Whitsunday Moorings and Marine Constructions, Riordanvale, QLD 4800, Australia
Dorean Erhart: Linden Climate Advisory, Tamborine Mountain, QLD 4272, Australia
Trevor Meldrum: Cape York Weeds and Ferals, Cooktown, QLD 4895, Australia
Peppi Iovanella: Down Under Cruise and Dive, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia
Olivia Brodhurst: Whitsunday Environmental, Cannon Valley, QLD 4800, Australia
Diane Tarte: Marine Ecosystem Policy Advisors, Redland Bay, QLD 4165, Australia
Daniel Kimberley: Monsoon Aquatics, Burnett Heads, QLD 4670, Australia

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 18, 1-16

Abstract: The literature on resilience-building in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is predominated by institutional voices. Although community involvement is appreciated in this scholarship, the perspectives are mainly those of scientists and researchers. Community input is used mainly to inform and strengthen academic findings, and there are few articles in the voices and words of GBR community members. Our opinion piece, with its majority co-authorship by the Stakeholder Advisory Group of Australia’s Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program (RRAP), addresses this literary gap. The piece draws upon the barriers to involvement in adaptation delivery as experienced by these GBR locals who have diverse backgrounds related to reef adaptation, including aquaculture, tourism, robotics, natural resource management, civil society, policy and Traditional Owner-led environmental stewardship. Currently, the social capital of communities is underutilised in GBR intervention delivery. However, with the urgency for action in the Reef, we call on governments and researchers to leverage the expertise, labour and infrastructure of local communities to strengthen institutional deployment capacities and thereby accelerate the scale and impact of adaptation efforts. We identify the key elements of inclusive deployment as shared leadership, flexible and inclusive funding, and innovative strategies to address permitting and regulatory barriers to community-led interventions deployment.

Keywords: marine resilience; community-led deployment; adaptive capacity-building; ecosystem restoration; stakeholder engagement; collaborative restoration; inclusive restoration; bottom-up ecosystem interventions; resilient reefs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
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