About State of the Great Barrier Reef reporting

State of the Environment Reporting

The concept of State of the Environment reporting was developed by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and most OECD countries now produce a variety of State of the Environment (SoE) reports. SoE reports are written to provide up to date, useful information about the environment and society’s relationship with it. This information is useful to government, stakeholders, community groups, students and researchers and the general public. SoE reports are often used to:

• Synthesise the available scientific knowledge about the environment;
• Assess the state of knowledge and identify information gaps;
• Provide natural resource managers with information for policy development;
• Assess the performance of environmental policies and programs; and
• Inform and educate the community about environmental and management issues.
  

In Australia, Commonwealth, State, and more recently, local government agencies produce a variety of SoE reports at regular intervals. The Commonwealth Government produces a report on the state of the national environment every five years, the latest report being released in 2001. Six out of eight States and Territories (South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory) also produce SoE reports and SoE reporting is now a legal requirement for local governments in New South Wales.

SoE reports are useful because while they provide an up to date account of the condition of the environment, they also describe the pressures that affect the environment and the action taken by society to deal with these pressures. This gives a comprehensive and incisive account of the condition of the environment and how people are interacting with it.

SoE reports combine information about the health of the environment, the pressures affecting it and the response made by society

State of the Environment Reporting for the Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority produces SoE-style report for the Great Barrier Reef. As custodian of the World Heritage Area, Australia has a responsibility to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to provide regular reports about the World Heritage Area that describe “the legislative and administrative provisions they (Australia) have adopted and other actions which they have taken for the application of the Convention, including the state of conservation of the World Heritage properties located on its territories”.

As lead agency for the management of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP), the GBRMPA helps meet Australia’s commitments by producing a periodic SoE style report about the Great Barrier Reef. The GBRMPA also prepares more specific Periodic reports and Framework for Management reports to the World Heritage Committee.

The first State of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area report was released in 1998

While the State of the Great Barrier Reef reports help Australia meet its World Heritage commitments, it is also intended to provide information on the status of the Great Barrier Reef to a wide audience including the general public, community groups, stakeholders, students and researchers, politicians and government planners.

In 1998, the GBRMPA published the State of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area 1998 report. The release of this report was a significant event as it was the first ever synthesis of information about environment, the pressures acting and the action taken by society. As such, the report provides a complete account of the Great Barrier Reef’s ‘health’ and the environmental and management issues it faces. In this respect, the report is also a useful management tool.

The State of the Great Barrier Reef report as a Management Tool

As well as helping to fulfil international obligations and inform the community, SoE reports provide natural resource management agencies with powerful tools for managing the environment. As a management tool, the objectives of the report are to provide:

• An accurate, up to date synthesis of the condition and prospects of the Great Barrier Reef;
• An accurate, up to date synthesis of the pressures affecting the Great Barrier Reef;
• An account of social and economic trends and factors influencing the interactions between people and the Great Barrier Reef;
• An indication of the current state of knowledge about the Great Barrier Reef and any information gaps;
• Early warning of potential problems;
• A synthesis of the policies and programs implemented by the GBRMPA to respond to the pressures identified, including the changes that have occurred since the last State of the Great Barrier Reef report (1998); and,
• A publicly accessible document to help increase public understanding of the GBRWHA, the pressures it is subjected to and its management.

State of the Great Barrier Reef reports are based on independent scientific assessments of the condition of the environment and the pressures affecting it. The reports are divided into two sections;

• Environmental Status: the chapters in this section are structured using a Condition – Pressure – Response framework. This model describes the condition of the environment, the pressures it is under and the responses taken by managers to address those pressures.
• Management Status: This section describes the management of key issues in greater detail, including governmental arrangements, policies and legislative tools involved in managing these key issues as well as the challenges faced by the various management agencies.

• The State of the Great Barrier Reef reports also describe how people interact with the environment and how society responds to the pressures these interactions may create

Links between Chapters

Although there are two main sections of the report, many of the themes and subjects covered in the two sections are closely interlinked. For example, a chapter about Seagrass in the Environmental status sections will have overlapping themes and issues with the chapters about Water Quality and Coastal development, Fisheries and Threatened Species. As such, there is some repetition throughout the document but efforts have been made to cross reference the report as much as possible.

The State of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area 1998 Report was released as a published document but is also available on-line.  The report (2003) is being thoroughly revised and will be in the form of a comprehensive website.  Sections of the report will be continuously revised and published online as they become available.