Third Australian Stream Management Conference – Brisbane, August 2001Third Australian Stream Management Conference – Brisbane, August 2001

Evaluating sustainable river Evaluating sustainable river management programs: management programs: assess the outcomes AND assess the outcomes AND the processthe process!!

  Jon Nevill, Peter Nichols and Mary Maher

Achieving programs for the sustainable management of rivers and catchments will not be easy. We argue that, as policies and programs are developed, they must be evaluated against both process benchmarks and outcome benchmarks. In examining the idea of process benchmarks, we raise doubts about the capacity of current forms of democracy to deliver sustainable decisions, and suggest that the freshwater industry is particularly at risk. Our arguments regarding the establishment of process benchmarks rest substantially on the need to incorporate accepted principles into these processes. We discuss a number of types of principles, including good governance, adaptive management, and the sustainability principles which have evolved from international statements such as those of the Stockholm 1972 Earth Summit.

Background paper (30 pages)

PowerPoint Presentation

www.onlyoneplanet.com.au

jonnevill@hotmail.com

Land and Water AustraliaImproving the legislative basis for river management in Australia – Stage 2 Report

Mary Maher and Associates

www.users.bigpond.com/jon.nevill/

mail@marymaher.com.au

jonnevill@hotmail.com

Is there a problem?

Democracy, as it is currently practised, is driving the planet towards ecocatastrophe.

Failure to apply conceptually simple accounting principles to the management of natural resources is destroying the planet’s resource base.

Is there a problem?

Failure to apply accepted biodiversity conservation processes (relating to the establishment of representative reserves) is seriously undermining the conservation of freshwater biodiversity.

Failure to apply accepted management techniques to the control of cumulative effects in the freshwater industry is driving catchments across Australia towards over-exploitation and degradation.

…and all this is happening with scarcely a whimper from practitioners in the freshwater industry….

ESD – ESD –             'using, conserving and

enhancing the community's resources so that ecological processes, on which life depends, are maintained, and the total quality of life, now and in the future, can be increased'.

Democratic structuresDemocratic structures

driving planet to eco-catastrophecreates decision makers whose jobs

depend on meeting immediate needsignores future generationsour system rewards them for this

ChangesChanges

political system which enshrines environmental principles

core values must changeeschew short term consumerist

valuesgive politicians job security – annual

elections for 15 to 20 yearslegislate for sustainable decisions

Measurement programsMeasurement programs

must encompass essential values indicators to measure these values define benchmarks for the indicators how to provide for new benchmarks? timescales statistical techniques for probabilities predictive methods processes for continuous improvement accounting for uncertainties

Water management assumptionsWater management assumptions

small dams, users, levees “…don't matter" no attention to environmental flows no need for freshwater reserves systems fish passage facilities unnecessary surface & groundwaters are separate no damage from grazing wetlands / riparian no need for rigorous enforcement unnecessary to value rivers as capital assets

Principles to be appliedPrinciples to be applied Basic principles

sustainability good governance environmental management

“Advanced” principles Wingspread Principles

Hanover Principles Natural Step Principles  USA Department of Energy website:

http://www.sustainable.doe.gov/overview/principles.html

Sustainability principlesSustainability principles

integrate economic, social & environ’t’l precautionary principle intergenerational equity conserve biodiversity / ecological integrity improve valuation / pricing / incentives shared responsibility product stewardship wastes hierarchy integrated environmental management compliance enforcement

Good government principlesGood government principlesParticipationTransparencyCertaintyAccountabilityIntegrityCost-effectivenessFlexibilityPracticality

Environmental managementEnvironmental management

ISO 14,000 standardsISO lists principles & mechanismsCore principles:           producer responsibility           quality assurance continual improvement

Example:

The cumulative effects of incremental water development (dams, bores, drains, levee banks, irrigated pasture, removal of deep-rooted vegetation) escapes careful scrutiny. The “Tyranny of small decisions” effect. The precautionary principle must be applied:

Cumulative effects can only be managed by placing strategic (catchment) limits on development, well ahead of need.

In other industries:

Marine fishing industry - strategic limits established to control catch and fishing effort.

Statutory landuse planning - strategic limits established through landuse zoning schemes.

Current Australian strategies to management cumulative effects: Strategy One: “forget about them”

Australian water resource legislation:

Western Australia: no mention

Northern Territory: no mention

South Australia: no mention

Victoria: no mention

New South Wales: principle: cumulative effects must beidentified and constrolled

Queensland: no mention

Tasmania: no mention

Aust Capital Territory: no mention

Current Australian strategies to management cumulative effects: Strategy Two: “leave it until its too late”

Australian water resource legislation:

No clearly defined requirements in any legislation. NSW has general statutory provisions relating to the control of cumulative effects, BUT...

Australian water resource policy:

- shared by all States and the Commonwealth Government (through the National Action Plan on Salinty and Water Quality).

“Establish caps on the development of activities affecting the water resource ONLY when catchments are stressed, or clearly approaching a stressed condition”.

Victoria is currently considering the establishment of a planning process which would establish development caps on some activities (such as susrface water extraction) across ALL catchments. South Australia and Western Australia have both established such a process, but are not appliying it.

A more detailed example:

Tasmania’s Water Management Act 1999:

Section 63 (Minister’s approval of licence application) obliges the Minister (or, more usually, his delegate) to grant a licence application in cases where environmental requirements have not been determined, providing that it is unlikely that the granting of the application would cause significant environmental harm, or detriment to other users of the water resource. Given that the Act does not acknowledge the issue of cumulative effects, this section prevents the use of a precautionary approach in allocating water to off-stream uses.

This appears to me to be an oversight in the draughting of the Act, even accepting that the Act does provide for allocation windback at a later stage when environmental requirements have been determined, and a WMP drafted.

Tasmania’s Water Management Act 1999:

From an environmental viewpoint, a far better approach would be to withhold the approval of licence applications pending the development of the WMP for the local resource. A similar alternative approach would require the Minister to assess the likely environmental effect of the application, taking into account the cumulative nature of such effects. The provisions of s.86 (allowing the Minister to assess the effect of a water allocation) do little to remedy the situation, as – outside the framework of a WMP – such an assessment is almost certain to ignore the critical issue of cumulative effects.

Hypothetical frameworkHypothetical framework

A natural resource accounting framework

EIA requirements for new proposals A system of State-owned protected

areas, complemented by privately-owned reserves

A water management framework Land use planning requirements

Mary Maher & Associates, Susanne Cooper & Associates, and Nichols, Peter (1999) Australian River Restoration and Management: criteria for the legislative framework for the twenty-first century, based on an analysis of Australian and international experience. Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation; Canberra.

Ten criteria (1999)Ten criteria (1999)1. National binding river standards2. Duty-of-care legislated for all3. ‘River’ legally to include floodplains etc4. Single, catchment-wide agency5. Commensurate statutory powers6. Agencies to include all stakeholders7. Close links between agencies & LG8. Statutory catchment restoration plan9. Independent regular catchment audit10. Statutory periodic review11. Remove perverse laws & subsidies

Ecological systems thinkingEcological systems thinking

economic progress within ecol. limits

climate of ecological uncertaintyconstancy of changeinnovation integralno net loss of ecological assetseconomic gain to achievers of ESDevaluate on long-term perspective

Management systems thinkingManagement systems thinking

plan, do, monitor, report, review, revise adaptive management for continuous

improvement producer responsibility for all effects assess new opportunities & threats work & report against targets strategic assessment of major directions coordination of all critical players clear roles and responsibilities

Progressed framework (2001)Progressed framework (2001)

4 States’ stakeholders' experiences systems thinking (above) frameworks of accepted principles

model legislative framework for catchment management could consist of 13 major elements, and about 65 sub-elements

 

Further information on the draft model legislative framework:

http://www.users.bigpond.com/jon.nevill

Achieving sustainabilityAchieving sustainability

on-going and evolving process certain elements are now available

at least two central thrusts values identified & indicators chosen management processes to incorporate

principles of sustainability, good government

& environmental management

ability of present political frameworks to deliver ESD must be questioned