Thousands of kilometres north-west from Perth, Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands are two of Australia’s most important marine treasures. 

Famous for its annual red crab migration, Christmas Island’s thriving rainforests, deserted beaches and fringing reef provide a haven for unique and rare seabirds, land crabs and marine life.

The Cocos (Keeling) Islands are Australia’s secret island paradise! Sitting at the top of an ancient sea mountain encircling a beautiful tropical lagoon, our azure waters are home to an incredible array of diverse marine life including tropical fish, corals, turtles, manta rays and dolphins.

Dear Director of National Parks, 

I strongly support the draft management plans for the globally-significant Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands Marine Parks in Australia’s Indian Ocean Territories. 

The sanctuary zoning of Australia’s Indian Ocean Territory (IOT) marine parks makes them some of the world’s biggest and best protected marine areas in the world. This is a huge achievement for Australia. 

I support the current zoning plans – co-designed with the island communities – which protect 739,000km2 of Australia’s waters around the islands, while supporting sustainable fishing in nearshore waters by the local community. 

The size and high level of this sanctuary protection will help safeguard one of the most unique and threatened marine bioregions in Australia, and significantly contribute towards Australia’s commitment to 30% protection of our marine estate by 2030.

The marine parks cover one of the most under-protected marine environments globally. Compared to other marine environments, pelagic environments have relatively few regulatory mechanisms to protect biodiversity and most management actions are associated with fisheries management. The IOT marine parks are a significant step towards enhancing conservation benefits for the pelagic environment globally.

It is promising to see the draft management plans have a strong focus on culture, heritage and conservation. The draft management plans are demonstrative of Australia’s global leadership in marine conservation outcomes, and ensuring the central role of the island communities in both management plans creates confidence that the objectives of the plans can be met. 

The strong emphasis on marine research, monitoring and data collection in the management plans is promising, especially when actioned with the $3 million IOT marine park grant. Ongoing investment is important to supporting the goals of the communities and conservation, and the success of the management plans. 

The grant and aims of the management plans are some of the strongest for improved conservation outcomes in Australia, and should be used as a model where marine parks are aimed at improving (rather than simply maintaining) habitats and species condition and numbers.  

I support the strong emphasis on the respective communities as leaders and custodians. The draft management plans are excellent examples of the benefits of co-design and co-management outcomes for communities and for conservation. It is great to see the draft plans supporting local aspirations, and ensuring these unique and vulnerable offshore territories are highly protected and well managed.

Please count this as my submission to the consultation on the draft management plans for the Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands Marine Parks.

Yours sincerely,
[First name] [Last name]

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