Science and information to support the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality and the Natural Heritage Trust
Position Paper
Science and Information Working Group, June 2003
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About this document
There remain some serious knowledge gaps affecting all or most jurisdictions and regions which have the potential to limit the return on investment from the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP) and the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT).
The purpose of this discussion paper is to propose priorities for targeted investment in science and information to overcome these impediments. These priorities were developed under the aegis of the Science and Information Working Group (SIWG) of the Standing Committee to the Australian Ministerial Council on Natural Resource Management. The SIWG identified four research themes (sustainable land use, biodiversity conservation, climate variability & change, and monitoring and indicators) as being of high national significance, relevant across several jurisdictions, and poorly addressed through other means. These priorities were developed by State/Commonwealth writing teams and refined by the SIWG with the assistance of Land & Water Australia and a national workshop. See Appendices 7.1, 7.2 & 7.3 for background information.
The five strategic areas agreed by the Science and Information Working Group are:
- Sustainable Agriculture and Land Use: methods and tools to link on-property, industry and regional sustainability targets, strategies and planning;
- Biodiversity Conservation: methods and tools to assess the relative impacts and potential interactions of a range of threats to biodiversity and assess the potential benefits to biodiversity of a range of management intervention measures;
- Climate Variability and Change: a) methods and tools to better account for climate variability and change in regional/catchment strategies and targets; and b) assess the potential impacts and costs of climate variability and change on biodiversity, agricultural productivity, water quality and quantity, vegetation and soil health;
- Monitoring and Indicators: practical methods and tools to assess and monitor resource condition, assess trends and predict the outcomes of management interventions.
- Managing Knowledge for Change: Systems and tools for improved access by decision makers to and use of the best available data, information and knowledge to deliver the objectives of the NAP and NHT
The Commonwealth/State partnership under the NAP offers a unique opportunity to deliver a coordinated investment on science and information and capitalise on science that is funded outside the NAP. Collaboration through a State/Commonwealth partnership will:
- Avoid duplication of effort;
- Make best use of limited R&D capacity on some key issues;
- Maximise leverage from existing science investments;
- Enable testing of approaches and sharing of lessons across regions and jurisdictions; and
- Share the risks in undertaking R&D.
This paper outlines priorities for investment in science and information to tackle knowledge gaps that affect all or most regions and that are significant impediments to the achievement of NAP and NHT objectives. It has been designed to maximise linkages with the substantial body of existing research and development effort funded by State and Commonwealth agencies, R&D Corporations, Cooperative Research Centres, CSIRO and Universities. It is also structured with a view to making it much easier for regional bodies, industries and policy agencies to tap into and apply science outputs from across Australia. The science and information initiatives proposed here will add value to other bilateral activities, and to the Monitoring and Evaluation, and Capacity Building components of the NAP. It will improve NAP efficiency and effectiveness, generating substantial gains in our collective understanding of catchment processes, and practical tools for catchment managers and decision makers.
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