AECOM, the world’s trusted infrastructure consulting firm, today welcomes the release of the world’s first resilience strategy for a World Heritage Site, the Resilient Reefs Ningaloo Resilience Strategy, shared by the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA). The strategy aims to support resilience to climate change for both the Ningaloo Reef and local communities.
As strategy lead and partner with the Resilient Reefs initiative, AECOM collaborated with the DBCA to identify key resilience challenges and prioritise actions for implementation, undertaking a resilience assessment of the Ningaloo Coast using AECOM’s Reef Resilience Framework to support the creation of the strategy, and facilitate knowledge transfer and capacity building.
“In the next 20-50 years, Ningaloo is predicted to experience a range of pressures related to human activity, climate change and biodiversity,” said Richard Barrett, chief executive for AECOM’s Australia and New Zealand region. “We are committed to delivering Sustainable Legacies through our work and are proud to bring our experienced resilience specialists to the Resilient Reefs initiative, creating a strategy model that reef management authorities globally can use to understand threats, build action plans to protect communities and help reefs adapt to the changing climate.”
“The Ningaloo Resilience Strategy offers an action plan that brings together community perspectives and leading reef science to address the most urgent challenges facing them today,” said Suzanna Remmerswaal, associate director, Sustainability & Resilience at AECOM. “The strategy is underpinned by extensive engagement with surrounding communities, including cultural mapping with Traditional Owners, the Baiyungu, Thalanyji and Yinigurdira People.”
Using resilience-based management, the strategy includes co-designing local solutions that support adaptation, including projects that diversify livelihood options for reef communities, restore critical reefs, preserve blue carbon habitats, accelerate co-management with Traditional Owners, and more adaptively manage local fisheries.
The Resilient Reefs initiative is a collaboration with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, UNESCO, The Nature Conservancy’s Reef Resilience Network, Columbia University’s Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes, Resilient Cities Catalyst, and AECOM. The program is funded by the BHP Foundation. In 2022, AECOM extended its partnership with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation with an in-kind commitment of up to $1 million to deliver the Roads to Reef initiative, which will develop innovative methods to plan, design, construct and maintain roads within the Great Barrier Reef catchment to minimise water quality impacts on the Reef.
The resilience strategy for the Ningaloo Coast
