I&I NSW Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Program

The NSW Natural Resources Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Strategy 2010-2015 (www.environment.nsw.gov.au) guides the efforts of natural resource and land management agencies and Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs) to better understand whether the overall health of the natural resources of NSW are changing and to assess the effectiveness of remedial action in reversing observed trends. The NSW State-wide natural resource condition targets (www.nrc.nsw.gov.au), as described in the Green State Chapter of the State Plan provide the structure for the MER program.

The strategy focuses on developing a seamless link between local, regional, state and national data on natural resource management (NRM) that will inform the community about how we care for the natural resources of NSW.

The strategy identifies four key priorities to achieve this:

1. Monitoring, evaluating and reporting of the condition of, and pressures on, our natural resources
2. Monitoring, evaluating and reporting on the short to medium term outcomes and outputs achieved from investment in natural resource management through a new program performance strand
3. Developing and enhancing collaboration with NRM partners which include Industry & Investment NSW, DECCW (including the NSW Office of Water), Catchment Management Authorities, Land and Property Management Authority and the Natural Resources Commission
4. Improving data acquisition, management and sharing arrangements.

Data and information produced from the MER program will be available through:

• State of the catchments reports for catchment-scale information - the first of these for the state's NRM regions are now available
• the NSW State of the Environment report for state-scale information
• other publicly available sources currently under development.

Background

The first NSW MER Strategy was developed in 2006 and information gained under that Strategy has contributed to the latest NSW State of the Environment and State of the Catchments reports.

The 2010-2015 MER Strategy follows on from the 2006-2009 Strategy and contains not only a clearly defined resource condition monitoring component but also a new performance monitoring strand. The Strategy is supported by an Implementation Plan (819 kb, ) which will be periodically updated and by a data management agreement. Further information about the Strategy's origins and intended outcomes is provided within the Strategy.

I&I NSW commitments

The NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water leads implementation of the Strategy.

I&I NSW has primary responsibility for the Marine Waters, Invasive Species and Socio-economic Themes. I&I NSW also assists with other themes by providing data on fish populations for the riverine theme as well as data on seagrass, mangroves and saltmarsh for the estuarine theme.

I&I NSW's MER activities align with other related State and National Programs, such as the NSW Invasive Species Plan and Sustainable Rivers Audit. They also align with the Capacity Building Profarm Training Program delivered from Tocal College within I&I NSW.

Organisational arrangements

Implementation of the Strategy requires involvement of all NRM sector organisations. Effective delivery of the Strategy is the responsibility of three inter-agency management teams:

• Resource Condition team with primary responsibility for identifying and coordinating delivery of information which allows an assessment of changes in the state of, and trends in, the condition of natural resource assets in the longer term. I&I NSW’s representative is Dr Bob Creese.
• Program Performance team which will monitor outputs and intermediate outcomes achieved from investment in NRM programs in the short and medium term. I&I NSW’s representative is John Pursey.
• Data Management team which is responsible for the processes and systems to provide best practice data and information management and sharing between MER partners and delivery to stakeholders. I&I NSW’s representative is Adam King.

The Resource Condition team also supports thirteen specialist “theme teams”, one for each statewide NRM target, with direct responsibility for monitoring under the resource condition strand. I&I NSW leads a number of theme teams and participates in most others.

MER products

State of the Environment (SoE) report: The SoE report, published by the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water, is the primary reporting product at the State level for this program.

State of the Catchment reports (SoC): Specific report cards have been developed for all thirteen CMAs. The report cards comprise information about resource condition, pressures and potentially management responses. The report cards have been developed collaboratively by CMAs and agency theme teams and are intended to inform investment decisions.

Technical reports and other technical products: The SoE report and the SoC report cards are supported by scientific reports about how the data for each theme were collected and analysed; and the basis for interpreting information about resource condition, pressures and cause-effect relationships. Scientific findings from the MER Program will be best documented through published papers. Technical reports and other products are available for download at the top/right of this page.

Related programs

State Plan and Corporate Reporting: The NSW MER program assists agencies to report on their progress towards the targets.

Review of Catchment Action Plans and CMA Investment Programs: The review and audit of CMA products will primarily be the responsibility of the NRC. However, I&I NSW provides formal advice to the NRC, about the general direction of CMA programs and on a target-specific basis.

Working Group activities under the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council: The Working Groups under the NRMMC include Policy and Programs Committee Subgroups (e.g. Climate Change in Agriculture and NRM, Aquatic Ecosystems Task Group, Vertebrate Pests Committee and Australian Weeds Committee); and Marine and Coastal Committee Subgroups (e.g. Marine Biodiversity Decline Working Group). Some of these groups have a specific emphasis on resource condition assessment.

Murray Darling Basin Authority programs: The Sustainable Rivers Audit 2004-2007 (published by the Murray Darling Basin Commission) provides a Nationally-consistent method of assessing fish status. The MDBA now collates information provided by the States, for example about river management and water allocation. Some of this information will also be used to report on NSW indicators and provide ancillary data for the MER program.

National Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement Program: Implementation of the NSW MER Strategy may eventually link to implementation of the National Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement Framework. The National framework is similar to the NSW MER Strategy. However, it does not identify specific targets. Instead it identifies the need to establish long-term outcomes and targets using an assets-based approach.

For information on the contribution by Industry & Investment NSW to the Strategy contact john.pursey@industry.nsw.gov.au