Skip to main content Skip to main navigation Skip to search

Queensland and NSW floods 2022

Visit recovery.gov.au to see what help is available.

Close
Home

Top navigation main

  • News & media
  • Jobs
  • Ministers
  • Contact us
Main menu

AWE Main

  • Climate change
    Climate change Driving climate action, science and innovation so we are ready for the future.
    • Climate science and adaptation
    • Australia's climate change strategies
    • Emissions reduction
    • Emissions reporting
    • International commitments
    • Climate Active
    • Climate change publications and data
    • Australia’s National Greenhouse Accounts (Emissions Data)
    Stronger action on climate change

    Stronger action on climate change

    See how the Australian Government is committed to taking more ambitious action on climate change.

    Find out more

  • Energy
    Energy Building a secure and sustainable energy system for all Australians.
    • Energy policy in Australia
    • Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council
    • Renewable energy
    • Energy publications
    • energy.gov.au
    • Energy Rating
    • Commercial Building Disclosure Program
    • Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS)
    • Your Home
    Decorative image

    Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme

    Guiding energy-efficient design and construction for a net-zero future

    Find out more about NatHERS

  • Environment
    Environment Improving stewardship and sustainable management of Australia’s environment.
    • Bushfire recovery
    • Climate change and the environment
    • Biodiversity
    • EPBC Act
    • Environmental information and data
    • International activities
    • Invasive species
    • Land
    • Marine
    • Partnerships
    • Protection
    • Report a breach of environment law
    • Threatened species & ecological communities
    • Waste and recycling
    • Wildlife trade
    Decorative image

    Read our Nature Positive Plan

    Our plan sets out the Australian Government’s commitment to environmental law reform

    Find out more

  • Water
    Water Improving the sustainable management of Australia’s water supply for industry, the environment and communities.
    • Coal, Coal seam gas (CSG) and water
    • Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder
    • Water policy and resources
    • Wetlands
    Water matters

    Water Matters

    Keep up with the latest news on the department's work in managing Australia's water resources.

    Read the latest edition here

  • Parks and heritage
    Parks and heritage Managing Australia’s iconic national parks, historic places and living landscapes.
    • Australian Marine Parks
    • Australian National Botanic Gardens
    • Booderee National Park
    • Kakadu National Park
    • Christmas Island National Park
    • National parks
    • Norfolk Island National Park
    • Heritage
    • Pulu Keeling National Park
    • The Great Barrier Reef
    • Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park
    The reef

    Great Barrier Reef

    Australia is protecting and conserving this World Heritage Area.

    Find out more

  • Science and research
    Science and research Undertaking research and collecting data to support informed decisions and policies.
    • Climate change
    • Australia's biological resources
    • National Environmental Science Program (NESP)
    • Office of the Science Convenor
    • Australian Biological Resource Study (ABRS)
    • State of the Environment (SoE) reporting
    • Bird and bat banding
    • Supervising Scientist
    Our climate is changing

    Our climate is changing

    Find out more about how climate science helps Australians with the impacts of climate change.

    Find out more

  • About us
    About us We lead Australia’s response to climate change and sustainable energy use, and protect our environment, heritage and water.
    • Accountability and reporting
    • Assistance, grants and tenders
    • Fees and charges
    • News and media
    • Our commitment to you
    • People and jobs
    • What we do
    • Who we are
    Decorative image

    Juukan Gorge response

    Read the Australian Government's response to the destruction at Juukan Gorge and the recommendations

    Read the response

  • Online services
    Online services We do business with you using online platforms. This makes it easier for you to meet your legal requirements.
Department of Climate Change, Energy, Enviroment and Water

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Parks and heritage
  3. The Great Barrier Reef
  4. Protecting the Great Barrier Reef
  5. Our investments
  6. The Reef Trust

Sidebar first - EN - Great barrier reef

  • Great Barrier Reef
    • Protecting the Reef
      • Our investments
        • Improving water quality
        • Restoration and adaptation
        • Partnerships and stewardship
        • The Reef Trust
          • Reef Trust Projects
          • Partnership with GBR Foundation
          • Reef Trust Tools and Resources
          • Monitoring, reporting and evaluation
      • Reef 2050 Plan
        • Developing the plan
        • Progress Reports
        • Advisory bodies
        • Science and the Great Barrier Reef
      • Case studies
    • World heritage
      • Comprehensive strategic assessment
    • Governance and partners
      • Our partners
        • Traditional Owners
      • Intergovernmental Agreement and Ministerial Forum
      • GBRMPA Governance Review
        • Consultation
    • Publications and resources

The Reef Trust

October Budget 2022-23

The Government is investing a record $1.2 billion to protect and restore our iconic Great Barrier Reef.

For more information: 2022-23 October Budget fact sheets

About the Reef Trust

The Reef Trust is the Australian Government’s flagship investment program to support the delivery of the Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan (Reef 2050 Plan) – the Australian and Queensland Government’s long-term framework for protecting and managing the Great Barrier Reef.

The Reef Trust provides cost effective and strategic investment to address key threats to the Great Barrier Reef and conserve the outstanding universal value of this World Heritage-listed icon. The Reef Trust has a strong focus on adaptive management, to ensure it effectively contributes to the long-term sustainable management of the Great Barrier Reef.

The Australian Government has committed over $3.2 billion to the Reef Trust to provide innovative, targeted investment in improving water quality, restoring coastal ecosystem health, controlling crown-of-thorns starfish and protecting threatened and migratory species in the Great Barrier Reef region.

The Reef Trust is delivered by the Australian Government. Governance and administrative arrangements ensure all funds are effectively managed and directed towards priority on-ground actions. These arrangements leverage and complement the broader governance structure and processes for the Reef 2050 Plan and the Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan 2017-2022, which is aligned and nested under it.

Objectives and Outcomes

The Reef Trust’s objective is to ‘provide cost effective, strategic investment which goes above and beyond existing programs to address key threats to the Great Barrier Reef and catchments for the long-term protection and conservation of the outstanding universal value of the Great Barrier Reef’.

The Reef Trust is designed to direct funding in a targeted and strategic way to deliver against four outcomes.

Outcome 1: Improve the quality of water entering the Great Barrier Reef from broad-scale land use to increase the health and resilience of the Great Barrier Reef.

Outcome 2: Improve the health and resilience of coastal habitats.

Outcome 3: Improve and protect marine biodiversity, including the reduction of Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (Acanthaster cf. solaris) and protection of listed threatened and migratory species such as Dugongs and marine turtles.

Reef Trust funds may also be derived from the pooling of offset funds for actions that have a residual significant impact on matters of national and state environmental significance.

Outcome 4: Any new development maintains or improves the condition of matters of national and state environmental significance through the strategic delivery of offsets through the Reef Trust.

Financial Accountability

As an initiative administered by the Australian Government, the Reef Trust has stringent financial, project management and reporting processes in place.

Investment delivered through the Reef Trust, including the contracting and delivery of projects, is in accordance with the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013, the Commonwealth Grant Rules and Guidelines and the Commonwealth Procurement Rules.

The Reef Trust is administered through the Reef Trust Special Account which was established by the Finance Minister through a Determination to the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013. The Determination prescribes the purposes for spending of funds through the Reef Trust, which must be for projects that improve water quality and coastal habitat, address threats, and protect, repair and mitigate damage to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

How it Works

Reef Trust investments are developed and implemented through a rigorous process of prioritisation and informed by discussions with scientists, experts, on-ground delivery partners and industry groups.

Reef Trust investments are based on the best available science and evidence, complementing the extensive efforts across government, natural resource management organisations and industry to deliver cost effective and strategic on-ground change. Investments:

  • address the highest priority threats in the highest priority locations
  • protect and improve critical assets through on-ground change
  • complement previous and current investments in the Reef catchments
  • deliver the most environmental benefit for each dollar invested.

Recommendations of projects for approval by the Minister for the Environment draw on advice from the Reef 2050 Independent Expert Panel to identify actions that will have a long-term impact and are most likely to be adopted across relevant industries. Approval of an investment is provided by the Minister for the Environment under Section 71 of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013.

Since its inception in 2014, the Reef Trust has developed a number of investment strategies to help guide the delivery of investments and target the Reef Trust outcomes. The Reef Trust’s previous investment strategies are:

Reef Trust Investment Strategy - Initiative Design and Phase I Investment (PDF - 5.12 MB) - 2014
Reef Trust Investment Strategy - Initiative Design and Phase I Investment (DOCX - 214.13 KB) - 2014

Reef Trust Phase II Investments - 2015

Reef Trust Investment Strategy Phase III - 2015

Reef Trust Investment Strategy Phase IV - 2016

Reef Trust Investment Strategy Phase V - 2017

Reef Trust Investment Strategy Phase VI - 2018

Offsets

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) allows for the provision of offsets for residual significant impacts to Matters of National Environmental Significance (MNES) that cannot be avoided or mitigated. See: EPBC Act environmental offsets policy.

In line with Reef Trust outcome 4, for projects where conditions of approval are required to offset impacts on a MNES value relevant to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and World and National Heritage Area, a financial contribution from environmental approval holders can be accepted by the Reef Trust towards offset delivery.

Offsets delivered through the Reef Trust directly contribute to the ongoing viability of the relevant value impacted by the approved action and deliver an overall conservation outcome that improves or maintains the viability of the relevant value.

The delivery of offsets through the Reef Trust follows the same process and governance as any other Reef Trust investment. Offset projects are developed in consultation with relevant stakeholders and the Reef 2050 Independent Expert Panel and provided to the Minister for the Environment for approval.

The use of the Reef Trust to deliver Great Barrier Reef marine offsets is voluntary.

A Reef Trust Offsets Plan has been developed to provide guidance on determination of offset costs, actions and locations for Great Barrier Reef biodiversity offsets delivered through the Reef Trust on behalf of approval holders under the EPBC Act, which can be found at: Reef Trust Tools and Resources.

Thanks for your feedback.
Thanks! Your feedback has been submitted.

We aren't able to respond to your individual comments or questions.
To contact us directly phone us or submit an online inquiry

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Please verify that you are not a robot.

Skip

Footer

  • Contact us
  • Accessibility
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy
  • FOI
Last updated: 06 February 2023

© Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.