| Grantee | Australia Marine Conservation Society & Environmental Defenders Office ↗ |
| Type | Offshore Oil and Gas |
| Grant Amount | 1,443,737 |
| Duration | Three Years |
The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) provides the following proposal for our joint campaign with the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) to empower and galvanise the community and marine stakeholders to tackle new offshore oil and gas development in Australia, with a focus on south-eastern Australia. Building active community and stakeholder opposition to offshore oil and gas, armed with the best legal advice and support, is essential in limiting the expansion of this destructive, outdated sector, and ultimately stopping it altogether. This proposal is designed to augment and extend the project that the EDO is seeking to undertake. AMCS has a long record of campaigning with the EDO and would welcome the opportunity to work even closer with this outstanding organisation on this important issue. The project will also complement advocacy from other conservation groups, large and small, and bring to bear AMCS’ distinctive and well-proven community activation, communications and advocacy prowess to this major challenge and opportunity.
This project, if funded, will leverage AMCS’ existing capabilities in marine policy, communications and community engagement, including in oil and gas advocacy, drawing on our standing and existing connections with marine stakeholders. We will support the EDO’s legal activities and we will lead NGO activity in the region at strategic moments, using communication assets and media, and activate the AMCS and ocean-user base in order to highlight the climate and biodiversity risks of offshore oil and gas operations. We will create a dedicated campaign team within AMCS to drive a targeted campaign to connect already concerned local communities and ocean stakeholders with the legal processes of offshore oil and gas development, and harness community action to turn the public and political conversation against new fossil fuel developments. The two most prospective areas of new exploration are off the north-west and the south-east. The characteristics of these areas and of the nearest population centres means that campaigns against offshore oil and gas developments need to be designed very differently in each area. The emphasis in this proposal is on galvanising a strong community movement, including activation of key marine stakeholders, in the south-east where the opportunity to activate coastal communities is highest. This is due to a level of existing discontent with offshore oil and gas expansion adjacent to coastal communities, coupled with population centres already sensitised to the impacts of climate change.
