11.1 MERI FOR THE MANNING RIVER, ESTUARY AND CATCHMENT MidCoast Council will implement a broadscale environmental monitoring, evaluation, reporting and improvement (MERI) program to support the management objectives of the ECMP. The MERI Program will provide a high-level assessment of environmental quality to ensure the values in Section 2 are maintained across the Manning River estuary and catchment. Implementing the MERI Program will assist Council and our stakeholders to establish a baseline of data characterising water quality including ecological health. Continued long-term monitoring will enable us to detect changes (positive or negative) in water quality over time. Analysing the data will aid decision-making and adaptive management, helping us to improve the program and achieve our objectives. The MERI Program constitutes the science program defined in the CMP Program Logic Model (see Section 3.4).
11.1.1 Principles The MERI Plan adopts the following Principles: • Adaptive Management – adopts a systematic approach to improving natural resource management by learning from management Relies on an agreed program logic – robust outcomes and making changes to improve the methodology to ensure outcomes can be ecological response and reduce stressors effectively measured • Values cultural knowledge – recognises the Uses Best Practice - current best practice and importance of cultural knowledge holders in scientific knowledge and multiple (environmental increasing understanding of the condition indicator) lines of evidence and health of the Manning River estuary and catchment and the influence environmental Adopts a risk-based approach – assists MidCoast change may have on physical and non-physical Council to prioritise monitoring of ecological elements of cultural heritage responses and stressors that pose the highest risk • Values local knowledge – recognises the value of to ecological health local knowledge in understanding and interpreting Emphasises collaboration – builds on existing scientific results about the heath and condition of programs to improve efficiency and reduce the Manning River Estuary and Catchment duplication in effort • Values citizen science – recognises the role of Transparent reporting – offers open access to citizen science programs in filling knowledge gaps information and increasing understanding of the condition and health of the Manning River estuary and catchment.
• Uses SMART Objectives – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound •
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Manning River Estuary and Catchment Management Program (ECMP)
