Natural resource and biodiversity management increasingly seeks to embrace the relationship between nature and people. Human uses of the marine environment often create pressures that drive overall condition, but it is also these uses that create ‘benefits’ or ‘values’ in the marine environment.
Frameworks that integrate social, economic and ecological concerns on an equal footing are gaining popularity as part of the process of embracing coupled human-nature systems. Identifying the assets, variables, indicators and data relevant to specific frameworks is essential to cost-effective environmental research, planning and action.
This project reviewed common frameworks that conceptualise the relationship between people and nature to identify which parts of the system influence environmental outcomes, and factors relevant to designing policy or influencing behaviours. A review of available data determined that insufficient data are available to adequately describe the integrated socio-ecological systems that support us. Because data collection is prohibitively expensive, it is important to think strategically about how to use existing information and prioritise the collection of new data.
Approach and findings
Insights from a broad range of disciplines and literatures were used to identify and describe the ‘ideal’ information set required to adequately support natural resource managers in different situations (the ‘wish list’). The wish list guided a search and compilation of relevant Australian data, the identification of knowledge gaps, and a discussion of how the existing compilation could best support decision makers.
To provide timely advice to decision makers, in consultation with a range of research users, the project team identified three common decision contexts or questions they faced:
- I need to implement a social and economic monitoring program for an area of marine estate;
- I need to make a choice between potential management actions; and
- I need to shift to more pro-environmental behaviours.
Responding to these common problems, the team drew upon the larger review of commonly applied frameworks (summarised in the project report) to match appropriate frameworks to the decision-making context. Advice was given on the available data aligned with these frameworks, and the need for specific research. In reviewing the available data, the team categorised datasets against the types of data required for the System of Environmental Economic Accounts – Ecosystem Accounting, given this framework is widely used by research users.
Project location
National
Project leader
Project team
Research partners
University of Tasmania
James Cook University
The University of Western Australia
Research users
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
State of the Environment Taskforce
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
Parks Australia
Fact sheet – Project 1.17
Project 1.17 fact sheet 4 – Frameworks and data to account for environmental and socioeconomic assets and settings
Diane Jarvis, Vanessa Adams, Swee-Hoon Chuah, Tim Langlois, Tracey Mahony, Matt Navarro, Emily Ogier, Gretta Pecl, Natalie Stoeckl (2022) Project 1.17 fact sheet 4 - Frameworks and data to account for environmental and socioeconomic assets and settings. University of Tasmania.
Fact sheet – Project 1.17
Project 1.17 fact sheet 3 – I need to shift to more pro-environmental behaviours
Matt Navarro, Emily Ogier, Diane Jarvis, Vanessa Adams, Swee-Hoon Chuah, Tim Langlois, Tracey Mahony, Gretta Pecl, Natalie Stoeckl (2022) Project 1.17 fact sheet 3 - I need to shift to more pro-environmental behaviours. University of Tasmania.
Fact sheet – Project 1.17
Project 1.17 fact sheet 2 – I need to make a choice between potential management actions
Matt Navarro, Emily Ogier, Diane Jarvis, Vanessa Adams, Swee-Hoon Chuah, Tim Langlois, Tracey Mahony, Gretta Pecl, Natalie Stoeckl (2022) Project 1.17 fact sheet 2 - I need to make a choice between potential management actions. University of Tasmania.
Fact sheet – Project 1.17
Project 1.17 fact sheet 1 – I need to implement a social and economic monitoring program for an area of marine estate
Matt Navarro, Emily Ogier, Diane Jarvis, Vanessa Adams, Swee-Hoon Chuah, Tim Langlois, Tracey Mahony, Gretta Pecl, Natalie Stoeckl (2022) Project 1.17 fact sheet 1 - I need to implement a social and economic monitoring program for an area of marine estate. University of Tasmania.
Technical report – Project 1.17
Integrated data requirements for natural resource management
Stoeckl N, Adams V, Larson S, Mahony T, Steel R, Allen S, Emmerling M, Jarvis D, Ogier E, Navarro M, Chuah, SH, Langlois T and Pecl G (2022) Integrated data requirements for natural resource management, Report to the Resilient Landscapes Hub of the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program. University of Tasmania, Hobart.