Thank you to the 480 people who registered for our webinar about the latest NSW State of the Environment Report. In case you missed it – you can now watch the recording online:
The State of the Environment Report is NSW’s premier scientific report card. Released every three years by the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) – the report tracks the health of our land, waterways, wildlife, air and climate over time.
In the recording:
- Darcy Welsh, Chief Audit Executive for the EPA, delivers an overview of what the report is and its key findings,
- Jeff Angel, Executive Director from Total Environment Centre, provides a rapid analysis of what’s happening with plastic waste, pollution and energy,
- George Woods, Head of Research and Investigations from Lock the Gate, reflects on what’s happening in the climate sector,
- Jacqui Mumford, Chief Executive Officer from Nature Conservation Council of NSW unpacks the biodiversity findings and current opportunities for change in NSW.
- And our panel responds to questions from the audience.
You can download the SoE summary score cards here. Or download the full report here.
Q & A
During the webinar over 30 questions were put to our panellists. You can read answers to the most popular questions below.
1. How does the EPA manage interference and influence from politicians and lobby groups?
The SoE is an independent report prepared by the EPA and this independence is enshrined in legislation. While Ministers can request that specific information be reported on (as happened in 2021 with the Net Zero Plan), this must be disclosed by the EPA within its Annual Report.
The EPA has a strong anti-lobbying policy that applies to all employees, including those working on the SoE. The EPA maintains an ethics and conflict of interest portal where staff can log any actual, perceived or potential conflicts of interest which are then able to be managed.
The report is based on scientific information provided by whole-of-government and peer-reviewed scientific papers. An independent expert review is provided over each topic to ensure that the content is scientifically accurate and provides a complete view of the topic.
2. Concerns were raised that the impact of fishing and the effectiveness of marine sanctuaries (fully protected no-take zones) have both been understated in the marine section of the report. What would the EPA say in response to those concerns?
The SoE team works closely with our agency counterparts to report on the latest scientifically robust data at a whole of state level regarding the coastal and marine estate.
Overarching review of the report content was provided by the SoE advisory committee, with topic specific reviews by independent experts to confirm that the content accurately reflected the current scientific knowledge.
The report noted a 6% increase in depleted fish stocks and that the area of the marine park estate, including marine sanctuaries remained unchanged since the prior report.
The Responses section of the Coastal and Marine topic notes the Marine Estate Management Strategy 2018 –28, Marine Protected Areas and Fisheries Management Strategies as key government responses currently in place, as well as the Marine Integrated Monitoring Program (MIMP) as the ongoing monitoring program.
3. Can the EPA explain why there are so many data gaps - "no data or very poor quality data". Are there particular areas or topics this lack of data relates to?
The EPA retains indicators and reports on key aspects of environmental health where there is limited data or where it is believed that sufficient data may be available in future. The indicators reported on in the SoE have generally been maintained over several reporting periods to provide a longitudinal view.
Limited data reliability can mean that the information that is available is not sufficient to rely on to inform a whole of state conclusion, such as utilising scientifically robust surveys which capture limited areas, species or timescales.
4. What are the risks associated with having a lack of data in some areas; does SoE have a role in highlighting this lack?
The risks are that appropriate management responses cannot be developed and where management responses are implemented, it becomes more difficult to assess effectiveness without a robust baseline.
The SoE does have a role in highlighting these limitations. Identifying and acknowledging areas of data development promotes transparency and may drive future improvements.
Data gaps have been highlighted where appropriate within the report topics, and a summary has been include within the Ongoing challenges section of the Key Findings, available here: https://www.soe.epa.nsw.gov.au/key-findings
5. How can the public go about finding out which experts peer reviewed which sections?
The EPA’s expert reviewers are listed on the SoE acknowledgments page: https://www.soe.epa.nsw.gov.au/about-the-report/Acknowledgements
Additional governance was provided by the SoE Advisory Committee to ensure that the report had an appropriate breadth of coverage over environmental health aspects.
6. How often is the EPA required to produce the State of the Environment report?
Section 10 of the Protection of the Environment Administration Act 1991 states that the EPA ‘ is required to make a report on the state of the environment every 3 years’.
There is no statutory timeframe for when the State of the Environment report must be tabled in Parliament. While the first report was due by 31 October 1993, subsequent reports have typically been finalised by the end of the calendar year and tabled in Parliament in the following year.
The timeline for release is consistent with previous cycles, and the EPA met its statutory obligations.
7. Was an assessment done of the impact of feral animals?
Yes, an assessment was done on the impact of feral animals, referred to in the report as invasive animal species. See the indicator ‘invasive animal species: distribution and impact’ which shows that the environmental status is poor and the trend is getting worse.
Information is available in the Animals topic in the following sections:
- Status & trends: soe.epa.nsw.gov.au/all-themes/biodiversity/animals#invasive-species-status-and-trends
- Pressures & impacts: soe.epa.nsw.gov.au/all-themes/biodiversity/animals#new-and-emerging-invasive-species-pressures-and-impacts
8. The Responses-Fire Mgt section of the Plants overview of the SoE report addresses only research and cultural fire. There is no response to the threat of ecosystem degradation (mentioned elsewhere) posed by increased fire with climate change. A key issue is improvement to bushfire suppression to ensure more wildfires are kept small. Why is this response not mentioned or addressed, and can it be in future SoE reports?
The cumulative impact of repeated weather events (including fire, flood and drought) on various aspects of the environment is covered in the pressures section of the Extreme climate and weather topic: soe.epa.nsw.gov.au/index.php/all-themes/climate/extreme-climate-and-weather#environmental-impacts-pressures-and-impacts
The EPA will note the specific aspects raised in this question for further consideration in the drafting of the next report.
9. Does the 18 new listed threatened species include marine? Or is it just terrestrial?
It includes newly listed species from both the NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee and the Fisheries Scientific Committee. See the respective pages for further information:
NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee
- Landing page: environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/threatened-species/nsw-threatened-species-scientific-committee
- Full list of committee determinations: environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/threatened-species/nsw-threatened-species-scientific-committee/determinations
Fisheries Scientific Committee
- Landing page: dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/species-protection/fsc
- Full list of committee determinations: dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/species-protection/fsc/final