Stakeholder involvement and interplay in coastal zone management and marine protected area planning

Most of Australia’s coastline and marine waters are crown ‘land’ and can be accessed by the public. As a result, many different users and stakeholder groups have an interest in coastal and marine planning and management decisions. As a way of analysing stakeholder involvement and interplay in coastal zone management and marine protected area (MPA) development in Australia, three case studies are presented to dissect the issues and explore common themes. The three themes are 1) Stakeholder involvement in implementing the oceans policy, 2) Stakeholder involvement in marine protected area network identification and 3) Stakeholder involvement in coastal land issues.