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Objective

Recommendation

Key issues

Actions taken

Objective

To improve coordination in monitoring and data sharing in environmental and natural resources issues between all spheres of government and to identify opportunities to improve reporting mechanisms.

Recommendation

It is recommended that:

• whole-of-government mechanisms are implemented to improve coordination in monitoring and data sharing in environmental and natural resources issues between all spheres of government, including government business enterprises;
   
• consolidation of the web-based delivery of environmental information is undertaken wherever practicable to reduce duplication of effort while ensuring statutory responsibilities are delivered and effective and timely community access to information is provided;
   
• as part of the 10 year review of the RMPS, an independent review is also undertaken of State of the Environment reporting in Tasmania including timeliness, coverage, comparisons with interstate programs, and readership of reports; and
   
• opportunities are investigated, as part of the review of the State of the Environment Report, to improve collaboration in content and timing of State of the Forests and State of the Environment reports, including data sharing arrangements.
   

Key issues

Capacity to monitor, assess and report on change is fundamental to effective management. Tasmania Together has prompted greater awareness of what information is gathered and how it can be used to track progress. Information availability has also improved in a number of notable areas since the previous SoE Report in 1997. These improvements include: TASVEG vegetation mapping; the expansion of the Statewide stream gauging and monitoring network; substantially upgraded monitoring of air quality in Launceston and the establishment of a monitoring site in Hobart; SEAMAP Tasmania, an initiative of TAFI to monitor and map the marine environment; the salinity audit; and, other Tasmanian components of the National Land and Water Resources Audit, including the biodiversity audit. The Land Information Coordination Committee, which was established in 1994, has a key role to develop policies and strategies for integrated land information.

Nevertheless, the capacity of management to adapt to new circumstances, assess the effectiveness of its actions, and communicate this to the public is constrained for some issues. There is a need for greater attention to capacity to detect and communicate change in order to inform decision-making at a range of scales. There also remains an ongoing requirement to prioritise and coordinate monitoring on a whole-of-government basis.

There are many factors influencing information availability, and these are discussed in more detail in SoE and Limits to Knowledge in the Toward Sustainability chapter. These issues include:

• Cost: Monitoring environmental condition is typically expensive, particularly for a State such as Tasmania with a small population, a diverse environment, a high reliance on environmental quality, and a diversity of environmental and natural resource issues and problems. Monitoring has generally been directed at the known environmental 'hot spots' or issues in which there is a higher risk of human-health and economic consequences. These 'hot spots' include: air quality in Launceston, the Derwent estuary program, and King River remediation.
   
• Profile: Information on changes to wetlands, riparian vegetation, estuaries and other aquatic systems remains quite poor, although it has improved since the previous SoE Report. More is known about forest communities than non-forest, and more is known about terrestrial environments than aquatic. Some change information is available for forests but not for non-forest vegetation. It is currently not possible to report on vegetation change in a timely manner with mapped-based outputs showing the location of vegetation change.
   
• National priority: National priorities are a factor influencing what gets monitored in Tasmania. There is no doubt that salinity is a significant threat to Tasmania and the salinity audit has been of great importance in understanding the problem in Tasmania. However, some other forms of land degradation may be equally worthy of assessment. Water erosion, wind erosion, soil structural decline, and tree decline are some of the threats to land condition that warrant further attention.
   

Actions taken

This section will be updated over time as management responses occur. It will provide feedback as to what actions have been put in place.