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

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.