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Social Science Community for the Great Barrier Reef
The Social Science Community for the Reef brings together social science practitioners and academics working in the Great Barrier Reef Region. The purpose of the group is to collaborate, share knowledge and provide a platform for improving understanding of social science for the Reef, both research and applied.
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This Community is an initiative of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in collaboration with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Office of the Great Barrier Reef (Department of Environment and Science, Queensland), James Cook University: the Cairns Institute and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Queensland University of Technology and University of Queensland.
To join or for more information please contact science@gbrmpa.gov.au
The Social Science community for the Great Barrier Reef held its inaugural symposium on Tuesday 5 October 2021 in Townsville, Queensland.
The symposium inspiration was social perspectives on maintaining and enhancing connections and flows that link and replenish, essential for the diversity and resilience of the Reef. We sought to explore social-ecological connectivity, which we defined as exchange or connection of ideas, benefits, knowledge, information and data, people and place, tele-connected and cross-scalar movements and other relationships.
We had an exciting program with a welcome from the Authority’s Chief Scientist Dr David Wachenfeld, two plenary talks, from Peta Ross (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and GBR Traditional Owner) and Dr Bruce Taylor (CSIRO), 12 presentations and two discussion sessions around the themes “Connecting and collaborating” and “Navigating change”. We ended the symposium with a panel discussion on critical paths forward.
The symposium was attended by a diverse array of people from across Australia and abroad (see summary over page)
You can find recordings of symposium presentations here
Stay tuned for announcements coming soon for the 2022 symposium!
