Australia has the world's third-largest marine estate — over 8 million square kilometres of ocean territory. Its coastlines include the Great Barrier Reef (the world's largest coral reef system), kelp forests, mangroves, seagrass meadows, and some of the world's most diverse and least-explored deep-sea environments. These marine and coastal environments face escalating threats: climate change-driven coral bleaching, plastic pollution, coastal development, overfishing, and agricultural runoff. Grant funding supports the research, conservation, restoration, and advocacy protecting Australia's extraordinary ocean world.
Scale
Key threats
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA)
Manages and protects the Reef — limited research funding but significant regulatory role.
Department of the Environment
AIMS (Australian Institute of Marine Science)
Research on tropical marine ecosystems — particularly the Great Barrier Reef.
CSIRO
Oceans and Atmosphere research — significant climate and marine science.
State marine parks authorities
State-managed marine protected areas and coastal management.
Great Barrier Reef Foundation
Largest philanthropy focused on the GBR:
- Science and innovation (coral restoration, reef resilience)
- Commonwealth partnership ($444m 2018)
- International research collaboration
- Community reef monitoring
WWF Australia
Marine conservation — Reef, marine protected areas, fishing reform.
The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
Marine and coastal conservation globally and in Australia.
Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF)
Policy advocacy and community mobilisation.
Pew Charitable Trusts
Marine protected area campaigns globally and in Australia.
Reef Check Australia
Community-based reef monitoring.
Reef Life Survey Foundation
Citizen science reef monitoring.
Sea Shepherd Australia
Marine wildlife protection and anti-poaching.
Plastic Pollution Coalition
Marine plastic pollution.
Reef conservation
Kelp forest restoration
Mangrove and saltmarsh
Seagrass
Marine protected areas
Marine plastics
Fisheries
Marine wildlife
Climate adaptation for reefs
Citizen science
Coastal communities
Traditional Owners have managed Australia's coasts and seas for millennia. Grant funding increasingly supports Indigenous-led marine management:
- Sea ranger programmes (particularly in northern Australia — Balanggarra, Bardi Jawi, etc.)
- Indigenous Protected Areas (sea country)
- Two-way science partnerships
- Cultural burning and sea country burning
Great Barrier Reef urgency
The GBR is the world's most iconic reef — and it is bleaching repeatedly. Applications aligned with Reef 2050 priorities (water quality, reef resilience, climate adaptation) have a compelling urgency.
Blue carbon
Mangroves, seagrass, and saltmarsh are "blue carbon" ecosystems — among the most efficient carbon stores on Earth. Blue carbon has attracted significant new funding from climate and carbon market sources.
Indigenous sea country
Applications that support and are led by Traditional Owners in sea country management are well-aligned with current funding priorities and represent a significant gap.
Citizen science
Marine and coastal monitoring at scale requires citizen science — well-designed citizen science programmes that generate credible data are cost-effective and engage communities.
Tahua's grants management platform supports environmental funders and marine conservation organisations — with research grant tracking, conservation programme management, citizen science data, and the reporting tools that help coastal and marine funders demonstrate their investment in protecting Australia's extraordinary ocean environments.