Australia's Strategy for Nature commits to protecting 30% of marine areas by 2030, yet the social foundations of that ambition remain poorly understood. Who supports marine parks, under what conditions, and why? Answering these questions requires sustained, large-scale data collection that can reveal how attitudes vary across place, time, and community.
This presentation draws on a decade of national survey data capturing recreational user and general public attitudes toward, and use of, marine parks across Australia. We show how individual-level and local contextual factors shape attitudes in ways that single-site or short-term studies cannot detect.
We discuss what these findings mean for implementing Australia's Strategy for Nature: specifically, how understanding the human dimensions of marine park acceptance can inform equitable, and locally responsive conservation design. We also discuss the need to invest in and build the infrastructure for long-term and large-scale data collection in the marine social sciences, as is common in bio-physical fields, to inform Australia’s strategy for addressing ocean challenges.