NSW State Government is committed to managing key risks to the NSW Marine Estate, including through the facilitation of climate adaptation for marine parks. A pilot for the Solitary Islands Marine Park represents a major milestone regarding climate change initiatives for NSW marine parks. This project aimed to: 1) identify climate change risks across the marine park, 2) develop a toolkit of practical resilience and adaptation actions that can be incorporated into marine park planning and future management, and 3) identify key leading indicators to guide and monitor adaptation actions.
The climate change risk assessment component utilised a multi-hazard approach (e.g. marine heatwaves, extreme weather events, ocean acidification, changes in ocean currents, sea level rise, increases in water temperature) to identifying and ranking climate change impacts to local marine park values. This considered the natural values of the marine park, as well as social, cultural and economic values. Development of the adaptation toolkit drew on international best practice, forming a collection possible mitigation, resilience and adaptation actions that are relevant to the values and climate change risks that are unique to this marine park. This also enabled the drafting of a framework for future climate resilience and adaptation planning.