Third Australian Stream Management Conference

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Third Australian Stream Management
Conference Brisbane, August 2001Evaluating
sustainable river management programs assess the
outcomes AND the process! 

• Jon Nevill, Peter Nichols and Mary Maher

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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.
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Background paper (30 pages) PowerPoint
Presentation www.onlyoneplanet.com.au jonnevill_at_
hotmail.com
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Land and Water Australia Improving the
legislative basis for river management in
Australia Stage 2 Report Mary Maher and
Associates www.users.bigpond.com/jon.nevill/ mail
_at_marymaher.com.au jonnevill_at_hotmail.com
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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
planets resource base.
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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.
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and all this is happening with scarcely a
whimper from practitioners in the freshwater
industry.
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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'.

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Democratic structures

• driving planet to eco-catastrophe
• creates decision makers whose jobs depend on
  meeting immediate needs
• ignores future generations
• our system rewards them for this

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Changes

• political system which enshrines environmental
  principles
• core values must change
• eschew short term consumerist values
• give politicians job security annual elections
  for 15 to 20 years
• legislate for sustainable decisions

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Measurement 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

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Water 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

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Principles 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

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Sustainability principles

• integrate economic, social environtl
• precautionary principle
• intergenerational equity
• conserve biodiversity / ecological integrity
• improve valuation / pricing / incentives
• shared responsibility
• product stewardship
• wastes hierarchy
• integrated environmental management
• compliance enforcement

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Good government principles

• Participation
• Transparency
• Certainty
• Accountability
• Integrity
• Cost-effectiveness
• Flexibility
• Practicality

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Environmental management

• ISO 14,000 standards
• ISO lists principles mechanisms
• Core principles
•           producer responsibility
•           quality assurance
• continual improvement

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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.
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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
be identified and constrolled Queensland no
mention Tasmania no mention Aust Capital
Territory no mention
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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.
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A more detailed example Tasmanias Water
Management Act 1999 Section 63 (Ministers
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.
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Tasmanias 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.
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Hypothetical 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

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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.
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Ten criteria (1999)

1. National binding river standards
2. Duty-of-care legislated for all
3. River legally to include floodplains etc
4. Single, catchment-wide agency
5. Commensurate statutory powers
6. Agencies to include all stakeholders
7. Close links between agencies LG
8. Statutory catchment restoration plan
9. Independent regular catchment audit
10. Statutory periodic review
11. Remove perverse laws subsidies

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Ecological systems thinking

• economic progress within ecol. limits
• climate of ecological uncertainty
• constancy of change
• innovation integral
• no net loss of ecological assets
• economic gain to achievers of ESD
• evaluate on long-term perspective

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Management 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

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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
•  

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Further information on the draft model
legislative framework http//www.users.bigpond.
com/jon.nevill
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Achieving 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