State of the Environment Report 2007
The following report card presents the Environmental Protection Authority's (EPA) synopsis for WA's environment in 2007. The EPA has considered a number of indicators relating to the condition of the natural resources or assets, the pressures or threats present and the adequacy of current responses. 'Status' refers to the current overall condition of the natural resources or assets, while 'trend' refers to the likely change in natural resources or asset condition over the past decade.
Environment hotspots are parts of WA where the most environmental issues occur and the environment is under the most stress. This map has been generated using bioregions (both terrestrial and marine) through summing each of the 'indicative extent of issue' maps presented in the State of the Environment Report: Western Australia 2007. The map reflects the presence of multiple environmental issues rather than the level of impact.
The Swan Coastal Plain (the coastal strip of land between Dunsborough and Jurien, including the capital city of Perth) has the most environmental issues in WA. Many problems can be attributed to a large population, growing settlements and use of land for productive purposes, such as industry and agriculture. The South West corner of WA has a considerable number of environmental issues due mainly to widespread modification of the environment since European settlement. Much of the Goldfields, Mid West, Pilbara and Kimberley have fewer environmental issues. The central inland deserts have the least number of environmental issues, mainly because they are remote, sparsely populated areas and the land is not utilised for productive purposes. Marine environmental issues are fewer in number and are mostly related to coastal settlements, shipping and fishing operations.
Each environmental issue identified in the State of the Environment Report: Western Australia 2007 was given a priority rating. The priority rating table uses five levels to indicate the relative priority to WA, ranging from Priority 1 (highest priority) to Priority 5 (lowest priority). The environmental issues appearing within each priority rating are in no particular order. It should be noted that while all the environmental issues identified in the State of the Environment Report: Western Australia 2007 are important, the priority ratings will help to prioritise policy development, management focus and allocation of resources.
A number of factors were considered in determining the priority rating for each environmental issue including the extent of its impact across WA; the reversibility of the impact; the rate at which its worsening; the impact on the environment, society and the economy; and the potential consequences for future generations. Community input and advice from technical experts helped the EPA to decide the priority ratings.
In the State of the Environment Report: Western Australia 2007, 'environmental issues' refers to problems or threats and are reported under common themes. The EPA determined environmental issues using community input from a discussion paper and advice from technical experts. 'Priority rating' is shown for each issue and 'trend' represents the likely trend direction over the past decade. For some issues that appeared in the State of the Environment Report: Western Australia 1998 a direct comparison could be made for trend direction.
In the words of the Western Australian State Sustainability Strategy, sustainability is an aspirational goal of "meeting the needs of current and future generations through an integration of environmental protection, social advancement and economic prosperity". This concept requires us to challenge the normal way of doing things and to look for opportunities that improve the environment, society and economy without accepting trade-offs.
The 'Towards Sustainability' theme of this report focuses primarily on the environmental component of sustainability. It assesses WA's major economic sectors by assessing whether our State's natural resources are being conserved, managed, protected and used sustainably for the common good. The EPA has reviewed each of the sector reports, and summarised the progress of each sector in relation to implementing an environmental management systems (EMS) approach, developing sustainability indicators and targets, and their performance in meeting targets.
Environmental Action was an action plan produced by the State Government in response to the State of the Environment Report: Western Australia 1998. It outlined over 180 specific actions to be implemented in response to the suggested responses within the 1998 SoE Report. In 2005, government agencies were asked to provide a review of their progress towards implementing these actions. Over half of the actions had been implemented, but 46% remained incomplete, were of an ongoing nature, or had not been initiated. These results reflect a range of circumstances across government from changing priorities and funding arrangements to ongoing programs.
More significant is a distinct lack of evaluation of environmental projects and programs within government agencies. Of the 54% of completed actions, only one-third (or 17% of all actions) had been formally evaluated to determine effectiveness of the actions. In many cases, agencies were not able to ascertain whether or not their completed actions were effective, whether they had produced a positive environmental outcome, or even if they were making positive progress.
As a consequence of the findings of this report the EPA has identified a number of strategic actions that it will take to assist in delivering improved environmental outcomes for the State.
The EPA commits to the following:
While Western Australians enjoy a high standard of living, there is a growing need for a shared understanding that our economic and social wellbeing is strongly linked to the health of the environment. The state of the environment will ultimately impact on our own wellbeing. It is our collective responsibility to look after our environment, and our collective and individual behaviours will determine how well we do this.
The EPA has identified the following areas requiring attention:
While our understanding of the environment and responsibility toward it has improved over time, and we have made significant progress in dealing with some environmental issues, the need to do more is now urgent. The health, prosperity and sense of place of this and future generations depend on our ability to stabilise and even reverse major environmental problems. In some instances, we have proved that this is possible, and as a society we have the resources and capacity to retain a healthy environment into the future.
