Photo credit: Bellarine Catchment Network
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'. The Marine and Coastal Stewardship Index (MCSI) was developed to represent the concentration of effort and interest invested in marine and coastal environments through stewardship activities, and track changes in this over time.
In 2017 most stewardship activities completed were Supporting activities which developed essential skills and knowledge vital for effective stewardship. By June 2021, a more balanced distribution across the four MCSI categories had been achieved which indicates an increase in activities targeting direct environmental outcomes. Due to COVID-19, Port Phillip Bay Fund reporting was delayed for 2022 and therefore the reduction of completed activities has slightly skewed the results.
For more detail on how the categories are determined for each completed activity please view the methodology section.
Annual Results
In 2021-2022, 7 activities were completed under the Port Phillip Bay Environmental Management Plan 2017-2027 (EMP)’s stewardship goal. These activities represent an investment of over $135,000 which was supported by in-kind contributions including over 5,700 volunteer hours and more than $20,000 cash contributions. Due to the low number of completed activities, there was a skew of the distribution with completed activities only within Focused and Enterprising categories. However, this demonstrates activities are making a longer lasting impact and have been driven by community groups for the community. While there are multiple grants and organisations contributing to the stewardship goal, this year all 7 activities were funded by Coastcare grants. Due to impacts of COVID-19, Port Phillip Bay Fund reports were finalised in September 2022 and any completed activities will be included in the EMP 2022-2023 Annual Report.
In 2020-2021, 30 activities were completed under the Port Phillip Bay Environmental Management Plan 2017-2027 (EMP)’s stewardship goal. These activities represent an investment of over $2.2million which was supported by in-kind contributions including more than 87,000 volunteer hours and over $370,000 cash contributions. In 2020-2021, the distribution of completed activities across the four MCSI categories is more balanced than previous years and demonstrates an increase in Enterprising and Focused activities. Twenty-five of the completed activities were funded by the Port Phillip Bay Fund.
In 2019-2020, 17 activities were completed under the Port Phillip Bay Environmental Management Plan 2017-2027(EMP)’s stewardship goal. These activities represent an investment of over $1million which was supported by in-kind contributions including more than 16,000 volunteer hours and $106,250 cash. Similar to 2017-2019, in 2019-2020 the majority of completed activities were Supporting activities. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic fewer activities were completed than expected.
Supporting activities develop essential skills and knowledge vital for effective stewardship. Given 11 of the 17 completed activities were funded by the Port Phillip Bay Fund which had a strong focus on community participation and capacity building activities, this was to be expected.
In 2017-2019, 45 activities were completed under the Port Phillip Bay Environmental Management Plan 2017-2027(EMP)’s stewardship goal. These activities represent an investment of over $760,000 which was supported by in-kind contributions including 37,180 volunteer hours and $79,000 cash.
In 2017-2019 the majority of completed activities were Supporting activities. Supporting activities develop essential skills and knowledge vital for effective stewardship. Given 20 of the 45 activities were funded by the Port Phillip Bay Fund which had a strong focus on community participation and capacity building activities at this time, this was to be expected.
Page last updated: 17/04/24