Tasmania is experiencing escalated development of its coastal regions, with greater use of coastal waters for industry and recreational activities, as well as the value placed on the pristine nature of our coasts. A greater understanding of community values regarding the marine environment is required so that increased seafood production and marine-based livelihoods can be generated from a public resource to meet the needs of current and future generations. In addition, procedural justice is a key component underpinning conflict in this arena. It is not enough purely to understand community values, it is imperative to understand how such values can be incorporated into a ‘just’ decision-making process. This project will use the Tasmanian coast as a case study to investigate potential means by which to incorporate natural resource values into public decision-making processes relating to commons-resource use.
