Issues

• Values: what do we need to sustain?
• Constraints
• SoE and Limits to Knowledge

• Atmosphere
• Land
• Inland Waters and Wetlands
• Biodiversity
• Settlements
• Cultural Heritage
• Coastal, Estuarine and Marine

• Response Instruments
• Summary of Report Recommendations
• Strategic Recommendations
• Conclusion

This section identifies some of the impediments or constraints in sustaining or restoring the environmental values as outlined. These constraints need to be acknowledged before considering opportunities and pathways to improve responses to environmental and natural resource issues. The constraints can generally be viewed as relating to factors including: activities that may cause or exacerbate a problem; capacity to recognise and understand a problem, community attitudes to risk, lags and feedback in the environment; and governance and resourcing.

Pattern of human activity

Most contemporary environmental issues can be traced back to long-standing patterns of economic activities, with the environment providing a record of these activities and actions. The pattern of human activity over time is evidenced in Tasmania's landscape and recorded in Tasmania's environmental history; many aspects of this history are evident across the chapters and issues of Tasmania's two SoE Reports. For example, the Land Clearance Issue Report describes how the pattern of land clearance has changed in Tasmania depending on the significant processes occurring at different times in Tasmania's history. The pattern of human activity can occur as a single event or the cumulative consequence of countless individual decisions; the latter generally being of greater significance. A report to the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council noted that 'Degradation of natural systems occurs because our economy makes it cheaper to degrade Australia than to look after it. The market signals are back to front' (Morton et al. 2002).

Lags and feedback

Often there is a complex interaction of causes and contributing factors to an environmental problem, which cannot be defined precisely. It may also take time for changes to the pattern of human activity to result in observable differences in natural systems. Various examples of lags and feedback are identified in this SoE Report. For example, it is an issue in relation to management of salinity in Tasmania where past patterns of landscape change and change to hydrological processes (a decrease in the depth to the watertable) may take many years to manifest as a salinity problem. In the Threatened Species and Communities Issue Report, the concept of extinction debt was noted. An extinction debt is incurred when actions that may result in local or total species extinctions may have already occurred, with the species still extant only due to the time lag in the extinction process (Tilman et al. 1994). On a global scale, lags are evident in the expected period of 15-20 years before recovery of the ozone layer could be expected, despite the phasing out of most ozone depleting substances through the Montreal Protocol.

Lags and feedback also occur in the management or policy response. For example, it may take time for an education program to influence changes in behaviour and impediments to changes in behaviour may need to be identified and addressed. Environmental lags and feedbacks have implications for governance and the capacity to maintain commitment to programs for the period required before actual improvements in the environment to be reported and for intervention to be a success. An example referred to in this SoE Report is the period of 30 years to eradicate feral cats from Macquarie Island.

Knowledge

Many species, particularly invertebrates, have not been described or scientifically studied. Their responses to human intervention are difficult to predict. There are a number of examples of programs where investment in environmental knowledge has been made-for example, the establishment of an expanded network of stream gauging and monitoring sites. There has also been considerable investment in knowledge through national initiatives including the National Heritage Trust, National Land and Water Resources Audit, the Salinity Audit, and the National Pollutant Inventory.

An important part of gathering knowledge is to monitor and understand the apparently healthy parts of the environment as well as areas that have significant problems. The Warra Long-Term Ecological research site is a good example of investment in research to understand ecological relationships and to apply these results to forestry operations. An expanded network of long-term ecological research sites for a mix of selected critical environments (e.g. estuaries and wetlands) may be one way to support the gathering of essential knowledge to better understand and manage these environments. Knowledge of change is also a key need. One of the more significant needs is to understand changes in the extent and condition of native vegetation, particularly high conservation priority communities such as native grasslands and some forest types.

Understanding risk

A constraint that is evident in the Adapting Coastal Settlements to Climate Change Issue Report, but is equally applicable across a number of parts of the report, is effectively communicating concepts of risk. In this Issue Report, part of the challenge identified is overcoming misconceptions about so-called 'one-in-ten year' or 'one-in-fifty year' storm events or scenarios. A common perception is that a one-in-fifty year storm occurs once every 50 years (and in 50 years time). This misunderstanding can lead to a false sense of security (Smith 1994). The so called fifty year storm could occur within weeks, in two years, ten years, fifty years, or even in hundreds of years. It also means that there could be a series of storms over a few weeks or months, followed by a period of calm conditions for the following 100 or 200 years.

Notions of risk are also embodied in the precautionary principle. The precautionary principle requires that decision-makers give more weight to environmental concerns where the impact of human activity is unknown or uncertain, but the consequences potentially significant. The definition of the precautionary principle applied in Tasmania is from the Inter-Governmental Agreement on the Environment, which states that:

'In the application of the precautionary principle, public and private decisions should be guided by: (a) careful evaluation to avoid, where practicable, serious or irreversible damage to the environment; and (b) an assessment of the risk weighted consequences of the options'.

The precautionary principle is about coming to terms with risk and acknowledging the limits of current knowledge. It is important for Tasmania because it is far more costly to rehabilitate or restore past environmental problems than it is to understand and avoid them in the first instance. The concept of precaution is part of the Tasmanian Natural Resource Management Framework.

Governance and institutional arrangements

State agency structures are typically organised according to economic sectors and human service roles and functions. These structures reflect established community and government priorities. However, while agency structures may be well suited for sectoral economic issues they are less well structured to consider the environment in a holistic way. This means that the environment is often considered only in the context of development (when it may be viewed as an impediment), and it also means that responsibilities for the environment are split across one or more agencies. For example, groundwater resources are a responsibility of Mineral Resources Tasmania (DIER), although integration of management of groundwater and surface water is recognised as a priority in Tasmania within the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment.

Commercially important values in the environment are comparatively well-resourced. While this is important for commercial reasons, commercial species may ultimately be reliant on non-commercial species and ecosystem services that are not commercially valued. For example, ideally, wild fisheries assessments would include non-targeted species that may be subject to unintended fishing pressure through by-catch. Species, which may not yet have commercial applications, may be important for the general health of marine ecosystems. Similarly, pests and diseases in commercially significant forest systems may not always have their origins in activities and ecological relationships confined to forest systems.