Balancing the trade-offs between ecological and economic risks for the Great Barrier Reef: a winning paper

Colette Thomas and Iain Gordon (CSIRO), Scott Wooldridge (AIMS) and Paul Marshall (GBRMPA) have won Risk Management Paper of the Year (2012) from the Journal of Human and Ecological Risk Assessment (HERA).

The paper, entitled “Balancing the trade-offs between ecological and economic risks for the Great Barrier Reef” came out of work carried out under the Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility, the fore-runner of the National Environmental Research Program.

The authors provided a conceptual framework of the Great Barrier Reef social–ecological system identifying a range of possible socioeconomic tradeoffs necessary to maintain the resilience of the reef under climate change. The conceptual framework is the first step toward development of a functional analytical tool capable of helping policy-makers choose between alternative management actions.

A HERA editorial board member commented, 'Development of a conceptual framework for the management of the Great Barrier Reef ecological system is of great utility for stakeholders and policy makers. The paper provides an excellent example of weighing benefits in decision-making for an iconic global wonder.' The award was based on two selection criteria: (i) degree of contribution to the field of risk analysis, and (ii) overall quality of writing.

The award was announced in the May-June 2013 issue of HERA.

Link to the online article here.