For the EMP’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement Framework (MERI), Stewardship is defined as 'community participation in activities that achieve positive environmental change and avoidance of environmental harm in the marine and coastal environment'. Stewardship has 2 strategies under this goal which focus on fostering a deeper community understanding of the values in the Bay and its management challenges. Building stronger partnerships across the Bay's foundation of community networks involves volunteers, researchers, agencies, local government, and

Image displaying the Stewardship goal, priority area and strategy definitions

industries. Stewardship requires answers from the Port Phillip and Western Port Regional Catchment Strategy to set baseline information for 4 KPIs. For the other 4 Stewardship KPIs, 3 are on track to meeting their targets by 2027 and the final was able to set a baseline target.

When the community were asked about which priority areas have improved the most since 2017, both Stewardship priority areas were rated most highly.  The majority of Stewardship activities listed are undertaken by community and have one of the highest in-kind volunteer hours, 296,414 since 2017, and the highest volunteer contribution of any goal valued at $5.1 million. Stewardship has grown immensely and while there are still ways to achieve and foster closer relationships around the Bay, since the start of the EMP, it is the goal that has grown the most, with the most activities reported within the Stewardship goal.

The chart below shows the KPI target performance. The full list of the KPIs and their target performance are listed in the MERI report.

Page last updated: 12/11/24