Integrated planning in Australia’s marine estate: A pressing need?
How Marine Spatial Planning can support it.
Thursday 26th June, 2025
4:00pm – 5:00pm (AEST)
The lack of an integrated planning framework for the management of Australia’s marine estate is emerging as a major challenge for development of the Blue Economy.
In this webinar possible approaches to overcome these challenges will be discussed.
The webinar will highlight some of the regulatory challenges for industry, Australian approaches that undertake integrated governance and international approaches focused on Marine Spatial Planning and how they can lead to improved and sustainable outcomes for management of the marine sector.
Presentation 1: Making sense of the marine regulatory space in Australia: The role of integrated spatial planning to underpin holistic planning outcomes. Presented by David Rissik, BMT
Presentation 2: Integrated marine governance in NSW: Collaborative governance by NSW government agencies under the Marine Estate Management Act 2014. Presented by Finn Davis, New South Wales Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW)
Presentation 3: An integrated approach to sustainable marine management? The role and realities of Marine Spatial Planning. Presented by Paul Gilliland, Marine Management Organisation
Followed by Q&A
PRESENTED BY
Name: David Rissik
Affiliation: APAC Lead, BMT
David is APAC Lead in Risk and Resilience at BMT. Previously at Deloitte and the National Climate Change Research Facility (NCCARF) at Griffith University, David has led a range of climate change risk, marine spatial planning and management projects for a variety of clients. David has worked on climate change related and spatial planning projects for all levels of government in Australia and the Pacific. He is an accomplished workshop facilitator and project manager and has led multidisciplinary teams to support government, business and industry. David is a Non- Executive Director of Green Cross Australia, a not-for-profit organisation supporting Australian businesses, industry and community to increase their resilience to climate change.
Name: Finn Davis
Affiliation: Senior Marine Policy Officer, NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
Finn is a Senior Marine Policy Officer at NSW DCCEEW, predominantly working on marine estate management and governance. He has a background in communications, research, and environmental science with a special interest in marine conservation and management of shared resources.
Name: Paul Gilliland
Affiliation: Deputy Director and Strategic Adviser·Marine Management Organisation, United Kingdom
Paul is a Deputy Director and Strategic Adviser at the MMO, a key marine regulator in England. He has 30+ years’ experience in managing and protecting marine resources with different government agencies in a variety of roles. In 2021 he helped set up and led a new Strategic Renewables Unit with a focus on offshore wind. As Head of Marine Planning at the MMO for over ten years, he led the development of the first marine plan in the UK (one of the first in the world) and oversaw the production of 5 other plans around England.
FACILITATED BY
Name: Professor Chris Frid
Affiliation: Program Leader: Environment and Ecosystems, Blue Economy CRC / Professor, Griffith University
Professor Chris Frid is committed to transdisciplinary research as the key to finding solutions to the grand challenges facing society and has worked with engineers, fishing gear technologists, political scientists, sociologists and economists. He was the lead ecologist in a study to value the contribution of the UK’s marine protected areas and has lead work for the European Union linking ecosystem service provision to marine habitats and key ecological processes.
His recent work has focused on the long-term change in marine systems including the role of climatic variation and the effects of fisheries. Much of this work has been seen as important for the development of marine policy and in particular the application of holistic, ecosystem perspectives and the management of multiple sectors. He has also pioneered work designed to provide quantified analysis of ecological functioning in sea floor systems and man’s impact on it. Recent work has seen significant collaborations with social and policy specialists working to integrate scientific evidence into maritime policy and management.
