I met Jock Mackenzie at the CitSciOz25 conference in Melbourne, where he spoke about Mangrove Watch and his role as Senior Program Manager for wetlands, coastal and marine environments at Earthwatch Australia.

He founded Mangrove Watch in 2008 in response to declining mangrove and saltmarsh health, and he explained how these tidal-zone trees protect fisheries, store carbon, filter water and shield the reef, all while remaining extremely vulnerable to climate change.

Australia hosts about forty-six mangrove species, more than half the global total, and citizen scientists continue to make surprising discoveries, including the critically endangered Bruguiera hainesii found in Cairns—one of only about two hundred individuals in the country.

Later I spoke with Shannon Bredeson from CAFNEC, who explained how the local action plan model emerged in 2022 after communities asked for ways to act on the problems they were documenting.

Workshops brought together scientific findings and community knowledge, and participants voted on which threats to address first. Some projects are simple to launch, such as the Mulgrave catchment’s education program linking students with the mangroves that surround them.

Others are more complex, like the Hinchinbrook plan using drone surveys and coastal engineers to design erosion control structures along the Cardwell foreshore. Initial seed funding of about seven thousand dollars helped early projects take off, and additional support comes through the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

More Information

https://earthwatch.org.au/research/mangrovewatch-community-events

https://citizenscience.org.au/citscioz25/

About The Citizen Science Show Podcast

This episode of the Citizen Science Show podcast is coming to you from CitSciOz25 the Australian Citizen Science Association conference, in Melbourne Connect, a world-class innovation precinct at The University of Melbourne.

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