Natural Resource Management – An ABS Perspective

Peter HarperDeputy Australian Statistician

Population, Labour, Industry and Environment Statistics GroupAustralian Bureau of Statistics

NatStats 2008

Response

Drivers Impact

Pressures State

A framework for thinking about environmental issues

An example

• Driving forces– Population

• Pressure– Agricultural activity

• State– Land quality -- salinity

• Impact– Economic losses

• Response– NRM practices

The information base

• Physical science is mainly concerned with state, as well as certain pressures and impacts– This is the realm of scientific information

• Drivers and many pressures are economic and social in nature

• Many impacts are also of a social and economic nature

• The ABS is well placed to measure the economic and social dimensions of environmental issues

• Many responses are affected through the actions of businesses and people– The ABS is also well placed to measure these

Integration is vital

• The physical, social and economic dimensions of environment issues need to be collectively understood, because of the linkages

• This requires common frameworks, standards and classifications– For NRM issues, geographic integration is

particularly important

• Information should be presented in a way that is consistent and coherent

Environmental accounting• An organising framework

– Presents comparable information in a systematic framework

– Encourages development of comprehensive and consistent data sets over time

– Provides a framework from which a range of indicators can be produced

Environmental-economic accounting• An emerging discipline• Enables the relationship between the

environment and the economy (and society) to be analysed

• Presents environmental data in a way that is consistent with broader economic data, such as the national accounts

• Shows the distribution of environmental resources across different parts of the economy

• Enables monetary valuations of environmental assets and environment-related flows

• Follows international standards to enable international comparability

SEEA 2003

• System of Environmental and Economic Accounting

• Provides policy makers with indicators and descriptive statistics to monitor economic-environment interactions as well as a database to identify paths to sustainable development

• Four categories of accounts– Flow accounts for pollution, energy and materials– Environmental expenditure and resource

management expenditure accounts– Natural resource asset accounts– Non-market flow and environmentally adjusted

aggregates• Currently being redeveloped

The ABS tool kit

• Surveys of businesses– NRM issues related to industries, including

agriculture• Surveys of households

– NRM issues related to persons• Land-based surveys

– NRM issues related to particular geographic areas

• Economic-environmental accounts• Analysis• Classifications and standards• Assistance to other information

producing bodies – statistical ‘know-how’

ABS NRM-related products• Water account for Australia 2004-05

– Experimental monetary water account– Experimental estimates of regional water usage

• Water Use on Australian Farms• Natural Resource Management on Australian

Farms• Farm Management and Climate• Environmental Issues – People’s Views and

Practices• Environment expenditure, local government• Salinity on Australian Farms• Land Management: Eurobodalla Shire & Fitzroy

and Livingston Shires• Australia’s Environment – Issues and Trends

Agriculture Resource Management Survey 2007-08• Purpose: to inform Caring for Our Country

initiative• Includes issues such as

– Details of commodities produced– Land preparation for crops and pastures– Soil condition management practices– Fertiliser use– Water use– Surface water management practices– Practices to protect the environment for conservation

purposes– Practices for dealing with adverse seasonal

conditions• Results available May 2009

The challenges

• Filling information gaps– Unlocking the statistical potential of relevant

administrative or regulatory data sets– New collections where needed

• Greater integration of disparate data sources– Particularly to understand linkages and

consequences• Making information visible, accessible and

usable – A National Environment Information System

The ABS cannot do these things by itself – it needs to work in partnership with others