Westport has partnered with the Western Australian Marine Science Institution (WAMSI) to deliver the $13.5 million WAMSI-Westport Marine Science Program. This 3-year program is developing the latest data, information and modelling on the complex environmental systems and community values associated with Cockburn Sound.
Project 6.1: Community values for changes in environmental conditions
Research Theme: Social Values
Researchers: M Burton, N Pauli, J Clifton, M Nejati Ajibishesh, M Kim, A Rogers
Publication Date: September 2024
How the community values Cockburn Sound
For many decades, Cockburn Sound has served as a multi-use location, supporting critical industries, as well as being a popular recreational area, particularly for the boating and fishing community.
As part of the planning for the proposed Westport development, this research looked to understand the community values for environmental resources within Cockburn Sound.
For Westport, this provides an understanding of where the WA community wants effort and spend to be prioritised for avoidance, minimisation and mitigation activities, offsets and other initiatives to enhance the area. This also included acceptable trade-offs.
To understand the value that the WA community places on the Sound and its environmental assets, this study ran an online survey of the Perth community, reviewed recent literature on community attitudes and values given about Cockburn Sound, ran workshops with stakeholders and held focus groups.
The study found that protecting the environmental quality of Cockburn Sound was important to the majority of respondents, with the average household willing to ‘pay’ to achieve better outcomes for Cockburn Sound’s marine flora and fauna.
What the report found
- Protecting the environmental quality of Cockburn Sound was the major preference of respondents.
- Just less than half said they were aware of the port development
- Respondents who knew about the Westport project were also more likely to attribute positive economic values for WA to the project
You can read the report here.
