Northern Tasmania boasts over two thousand kilometres of stunning coastline, including resource rich estuaries, beautiful beaches and rocky shorelines, islands, dune fields, wetlands and marine habitats.  Significant estuaries and coastal wetlands link the inland environment with coastal and marine systems.  Our coastal zone and catchments support unique ecological values and threatened species. Extensive shallow waters sustain sea-grass beds and rocky reef kelp habitat promotes productive marine communities.

There are numerous competing uses for our estuaries, coastal, wetland and marine resources, including pastoral, mining, commercial, tourist interests and fisheries.  Coastal environments are also centres of urban development throughout the region.  As a result of multiple and sometimes conflicting uses, pressure has substantially increased on our coastal and marine resources.

The Healthy Coasts and Seas program has been developed to help manage the natural resources of our coastal, marine, wetland and estuarine areas for the future.

The program focuses on improving our understanding and management of the values of northern Tasmania’s coasts and oceans and to conserve and restore these values where threats are identified.

The program has a number of focus areas, including:

• Coastal Zone Management – to address threats to the coastal zone, with an emphasis on the implementation of priority regional actions, working on-ground to conserve coastal environments for resilience to climate change and other impacts.

• Integrated Catchment Management – this builds on coastal zone management, incorporating a broader ‘catchment-to-coast’ approach, to identify and manage catchment-based threats to the coastal and marine environment.

• Marine Management – understanding the immediate marine environment through mapping, monitoring and management of impacts helps secure the marine values and resources found in our in-shore waters.

• Estuarine Values Management – estuaries are a dynamic and productive component of catchment-to-coast interactive systems and require understanding of these processes and cooperation between stakeholders to maintain these values for continued wise use.

• Wetland Management – with five internationally recognised Ramsar wetlands all located within coastal areas and a large number of coastal wetlands and lagoons scattered along our coastline, wetland management, through information collection and on-ground protection measures, forms an important role in managing coastal resources.

• Coastal Community Engagement – a critical part of all of our activities, the program has a particular focus on supporting the work of coastal community groups and volunteers, who care for our precious natural resources with commitment and passion.