2020-09-14 GC Agenda - Item 7 - Attachment 2 - Independent Scientific Review of Monitoring and Evaluation Plan

takes a broad view of the overall monitoring and reporting plan, comments on its effectiveness and makes
recommendations to improve or complement this work. In this way, the review seeks to add value to the
work already undertaken by TNC.



4 Findings

This section presents the review findings, addressing the first two components of the project brief: the
appropriateness of the project goals to the focus of the Partnership, and the likely effectiveness of the
proposed monitoring and evaluation methods.

       4.1 Appropriateness of project goals to the focus of the Partnership
The Partnership agreement sets a bold vision for an innovative and regionally significant alliance to improve
the health and resilience of the Noosa River, and the industries and local communities that rely on its long-
term wellbeing.
Four focal areas are identified3:
       1. Health and resilience of Noosa’s marine and estuarine environment, through innovative restoration
          and coastal resilience projects;
       2. Improve Noosa River management by engaging with the expertise of TNC’s global networks and
          experience;
       3. Demonstrate a collaborative alliance that achieves superior outcomes to existing management
          models; and
       4. Increase government, private, industry and community support for conservation and restoration
          activities etc.
There is some confusion in the hierarchy of goals and objectives in the Project plan and MER plan (where
those terms are used in several different ways). The review brief specifies the goals as those presented in
the MER Plan (and reproduced as Table 2 above). The 11 goals clearly articulate how the Bring Back the Fish
Project will deliver ecological, socio-economic and project efficiency targets associated with the oyster reef
restoration project.
The oyster reef restoration project is an appropriate project to commence collaborative restoration
activities under the Partnership agreement. The project will contribute to all of the focal areas of the
Partnership (but particularly focal area 1). Oyster reef restoration was prioritised at an expert workshop
held in 2014, and is a good fit with TNC’s expertise and international networks.
The oyster reef restoration project is the core of the document hierarchy of Partnership agreement, Project
Plan and MER Plan. Focal area 3, the alliance itself, is enacted by the restoration project, but is not explicitly
evaluated. Later recommendations (as part of the MER review) suggest that the partners should also
actively consider how they will assess, evaluate and learn about the partnering initiative itself.




3
    The focus areas are paraphrased. The full text is provided in the section 2.1


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