Peter G. Fairweather

Improving the use of Science in Environmental Assessments

Scrutiny of Environmental impact Statements (EIS) as scientific documents is still in its infancy in Australia, yet we already have litany of complaints about their quality. My examination of I31 EISs covering a range of projects, habitats and legislatures revealed that few tackled ecological issues and mostly without a quantitative approach utilizing statistical analyses. I therefore conclude that the science in EISs is rather more rudimentary than the standard seen in ecological journals. Here I outline the genesis of problems with how science is used in environmental assessment and suggest several means by which scientists and regulatory authorities can try to rectify the situation. These suggestions revolve around my central point that the image of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) needs to be put more positively — to deserve this requires in turn, a higher standard of scientific input and use. Even if some environmental impact studies verge upon being pseudoscientific, they should be of interest ...

Australian marine protected areas

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are sites in the ocean and coastal sea that are dedicated to the conservation of biodiversity, fisheries, ecosystem services and cultural values. MPAs range from small, highly protected marine reserves through to large, multiple-use marine parks, such as the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park of Queensland, Australia. This chapter identifies the major policy events and phases of MPA development in Australia, and explores the role and effectiveness of MPAs in conserving Australia’s marine environment. The governance of Australian MPAs is complex; the responsibility for their declaration and management is shared between the Australian (Commonwealth), State and Territory Governments. Progress in the declaration and management of MPAs is not uniform across Australia, with some jurisdictions performing better than others. Australia is considered a world leader in the science and implementation of MPAs. However, there are serious weaknesses in the design of MPAs in Commonwealth waters due to the locating of new MPAs where they are least controversial and least costly. Considerable further effort is needed to create an effective national program for delivering biodiversity conservation in Australia waters. This is particularly important because Australia’s oceans face an unprecedented set of pressures from accelerating climate change and coastal development.

Australia's coastal fisheries and farmed seafood: an ecological basis for determining sustainability

In response to consumer concerns about the sustainability of Australian-sourced seafood we derive a set of criteria within an explicit decision-process that can be used to determine whether locally farmed and wild-caught Australian seafood products meet standards of ecological sustainability and Ecologically Sustainable Development. These criteria substantially address the ecological deficiencies we identified in other systems commonly used for assessing seafood sustainability. The criteria address the issues that are relevant to local seafood production, and are populated with indicators (metrics) and benchmarks relevant to the Australian context. The indicators establish performance thresholds drawn from public domain data about the products, including observed empirical data and proxies, and include default decisions to be applied in the absence of adequate information. This decision structure is set within a peer-reviewed expert jury decision-making process. The criteria, decision process and decision outcomes from assessment of a number of pilot products were tested in a real seafood market (Melbourne), where we found a high level of producer, reseller and consumer acceptance of the judgements and ratings. The use of ecologically-derived standards results in several outcomes that differ from those of other seafood assessment systems, especially those assessments more focused on production standards, such as government, industry and NGO-supported programs, popularly used in Australia and worldwide. We conclude that despite high levels of uncertainty surrounding many of the population parameters, ecological patterns and processes, empirical cost-effective proxies can be used to reasonably estimate a form of sustainability that matches consumer interests/expectations for production of fresh local seafood. Despite the plethora of industry and government programs, there remains a significant but presently unmet consumer demand for ecologically-based, technically robust, independently derived, and readily available information about the local sustainability attributes of Australian wild-caught and farmed fresh seafood.

Monitoring Ecological Impacts: Variables that are used for monitoring in flowing waters

From the previous chapter, it should be apparent that choice of variables to use in a monitoring program is a critical decision and not one to make arbitrarily or hastily. However, many biomonitoring texts (e.g. Davis & Simon 1995; Karr & Chu 1999; Rosenberg & Resh 1993) focus upon only particular taxonomic groups or particular kinds of variables. Specific biomonitoring studies are spread over many different journals, from those specializing in particular taxa to ones on whole communities, and from those publishing mainly in areas of basic ecology to those directed specifically at applied ecology or environmental management. It is difficult for any individual to keep track of all of this literature, and researchers can often be unaware of developments outside their immediate field of expertise. Here, we summarize briefly the characteristics of useful variables. Although much of this material is discussed in other chapters (chapters 6, 9 and 11), we summarize it here simply to emphasize that useful monitoring variables are not necessarily associated with particular taxonomic groups and that researchers are advised to look widely across the taxonomic and ecological range. From chapter 9, it should be clear that dogmatic advice about which taxa should be monitored should be avoided. Although this may disappoint those who prefer simple recipes, choice of response variables requires measured consideration of a number of attributes.