Download SoE 2011 - Heritage chapter overview

SoE 2011 – Heritage chapter overview
This presentation is one of a series of Australia State of
the Environment 2011 (SoE 2011) presentations given
by SoE Committee members and departmental staff
following the release of the SoE 201.
This material was developed to be delivered as part of
an oral presentation. The full report should be referred
to for understanding the context of this information.
For more information please refer to:
http://www.environment.gov.au
Or contact the SoE team via email:
[email protected]
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Photo Aerial view of the Pilbara by Andrew Griffiths - Lensaloft
Presentation – Heritage
chapter
Photo: Purnululu National
Park, World overview
Heritage Area. Image copyright Rod Hartvigsen, Murranji Photography.
State of the Environment reporting
 A report must be tabled in Parliament every five years
 Definition of ‘environment’ is very broad
 No current regulations regarding scope, content or process
 Lessons from previous reports and directives for 2011
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Purpose of SoE 2011
Provide relevant and useful information on environmental
issues to the public and decision-makers...
… to raise awareness and support more informed
environmental management decisions …
… leading to more sustainable use and effective
conservation of environmental assets.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
SoE 2011 Products
 Full report
 With summary and 17 headlines
 Nine theme chapters – each with key findings
 Chapter on future reporting
 In-Brief
 Online materials
 Commissioned reports
 Workshop reports
 Additional tables and figures
www.environment.gov.au/soe
2011 State of the Environment Committee
Chair: Tom Hatton (Director, CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country)
Members:
Steven Cork (independent research ecologist and futurist)
Peter Harper (Deputy Australian Statistician)
Rob Joy (School of Global Studies, Social Science & Planning, RMIT)
Peter Kanowski (Fenner School of Environment & Society, ANU)
Richard Mackay (heritage specialist, Godden Mackay Logan)
Neil McKenzie (Chief, CSIRO Land and Water)
Trevor Ward (independent marine and fisheries ecologist)
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Process of preparing SoE 2011
 Structure determined in consultation with department,
committee and target audience
 Information gaps identified
 Data collection phase - including commissioned
research, consultations and workshops




Completion of draft chapters
Peer review (47+ reviewers of chapters and supplementary materials)
Editing and design
Development of supplementary products
www.environment.gov.au/soe
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Key Findings of SOE 2011
 Our environment is a national issue requiring
national leadership and action.
 Effective environmental management requires
adequate information.
 Australians cannot afford to see themselves
as separate from the environment.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Photo: Purnululu National Park, World Heritage Area. Image copyright Rod Hartvigsen, Murranji Photography.
Approach to conducting assessments and
presenting results
 DPSIR framework as basis
 + report cards for condition, pressures and
management effectiveness
 + discussion of resilience
 + risk assessment
 + outlooks
 Presented in a thematic structure
www.environment.gov.au/soe
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Assessment summaries in the report
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Key findings – Drivers of environmental
change
 The principal drivers of Australia’s environment—and its future
condition—are climate variability and change, population growth
and economic growth.
 Climate variability and climate change have a direct impact on the
condition of Australia’s environment.
 Australia’s exposure to climate change is dependent on global
greenhouse gas emissions.
 It is likely that we are already seeing the effects of climate change
in Australia.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Key findings – Drivers of environmental
change
 The Australian economy is projected to grow by 2.7% per year
until 2050.
 Under the base scenario, Australia’s population of 22.2 million
people in 2010 is projected to grow to 35.9 million by 2050.
 We have opportunities to decouple population and economic
growth from pressure on our environment.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Key findings – Heritage
 Our extraordinary and diverse natural and cultural heritage generally
remains in good condition.
 Australia is recognised internationally for leadership in heritage
management.
 Our heritage is being threatened by natural and human processes and a
lack of public sector resourcing that does not reflect the true value of
heritage to the Australian community.
 Improvement will require change.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
State and trends
 Our extraordinary and diverse natural and cultural heritage generally
remains in good condition, but threatened by factors such as fire,
erosion, invasive species, use and development impacts.
 More than half of Australia’s bioregions have at least 10% of their area
within reserved lands – but a larger percentage may be appropriate.
 Interest in Indigenous heritage and involvement of Indigenous people
have increased, but incremental destruction continues.
 Historic heritage is generally in good condition, but listing processes are
erratic.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Number of places added to National Heritage List,
2005-06 to 2010-11

Source: Heritage Division, Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and
Communities, 2011
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Number of places added to Commonwealth
Heritage List, 2005-06 to 2010-11

Source: Heritage Division, Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and
Communities, 2011
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Number of heritage places listed by local
government area

Source: Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities,
2011, using data from state and territory heritage agencies (2011) for places listed by local government area; PSMA
Australia Ltd (2010) local government area boundaries; Australian Bureau of Statistics
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Number of heritage places listed per hundred
people by local government area

Source: Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities,
2011, using data from state and territory heritage agencies (2011) for places listed by local government area; PSMA
Australia Ltd (2010) local government area boundaries; Australian Bureau of Statistics
www.environment.gov.au/soe
National Reserve System – Interim Biogeographic
Regionalisation of Australia regional protection level

Source: Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities;
Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (CAPAD) (2008•
) and Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of
•
Australia (IBRA 6.1) (•
2005) compiled by the Environmental Resources Information Network, Australian Government
•
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (2010•
) with data provided by state and territory land
•
management agencies; Australian Coastline and State Borders 1:100 000•(1990•
), Geoscience Australia
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Proposed new priorities for bioregions, based on indicative
combined gap for ecosystems and EPBC-listed species,
expressed as a percentage of bioregion area

Source: Taylor et al. Building nature’s safety net 2011: the state of protected areas for Australia’s ecosystems and
wildlife. Sydney: WWF – Australia, 2011.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Changes in integrity and condition of historic
heritage places, 2000-11

Source: Pearson & Marshall, Study of condition and integrity of historic heritage places for the 2011 State of the
Environment report. Report prepared for SEWPaC, 2011.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Pressures affecting heritage
 Some issues, like the legacy of land clearing cannot be readily
addressed; others such as climate change impact need short-term
response even if the cause cannot be removed.
 Natural: invasive species, habitat loss, land use conflict and tension
between economic and conservation values of land.
 Indigenous: inadequate documentation, loss of knowledge / tradition and
incremental destruction.
 Historic: pressures for redevelopment and population shifts – reduced
resources in rural areas and increased pressure in urban and coastal
areas.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Management effectiveness
 Australia is recognised internationally for heritage management.
 Identification processes are erratic and inconsistent – in particular, there
is no national picture for Indigenous heritage.
 Heritage places in public ownership are often supported by well-prepared
management plans.
 Reactive, linear development consent processes militate against heritage.
 Some building codes and standards (e.g. green star) are problematic.
 Resources available for heritage conservation are declining in real terms.
 Public sector resourcing does not reflect the true value of heritage to the
Australian community.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Importance of preserving natural icons and
landmarks

Source: Deakin University, National survey of public attitudes to Australian heritage. Unpublished report to SEWPaC, 2011
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Importance of preserving human-made icons and
landmarks

Source: Deakin University, National survey of public attitudes to Australian heritage. Unpublished report to SEWPaC, 2011
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Productivity Commission
 “For many private owners, the current use and enjoyment of their property are consistent
with, indeed require, maintaining its heritage attributes”
 “…..the wider cultural benefits of the place are provided to their community with little
added costs, apart from the extra administrative cost involved with government
identification, assessment and listing”
 Private owners of heritage places provide public “goods” but this
contribution is not reflected in available incentives.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Green star ratings
 Sustainability and embodied energy………….
 No points for heritage conservation
“A refurbished building will not have new concrete poured and
therefore cannot achieve the credit for use of recycled content in
structural concrete”.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
EPBC Act Enforcement:
Burrup Peninsula National Heritage Place
A petroglyph in the immediate vicinity of the area affected by clearing,
blasting and quarrying works, Dampier Archipelago National Heritage Place,
showing a small, complex, engraved panel (arrowed) among disturbed
boulders, and an engraved lizard visible on the right-hand side (see photo
at right)

Photos by Jo McDonald, Jo McDonald Cultural Heritage Management
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Applications and ministerial declarations under each section
of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage
Protection Act 1984 as at 9 August 2011

Source: Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities,
2011
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Risks
 Climate change impacts: extreme weather, fires, habitat loss and
invasive species.
 Incremental loss through informed site-specific consent – in the absence
of adequate knowledge about the total extent of the heritage resource.
 Inadequate resourcing – limited funding, lack of incentives, neglect and
loss of specialist heritage trade skills.
 Development and resource extraction projects – at both a landscape and
individual site scale.
 Lack of national leadership.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Membership of the International Council on Monuments
and Sites, Australia, 2006-10

Source: Australia ICOMOS
www.environment.gov.au/soe
National Trust membership, 2005-09

Source: Australian Council of National Trusts
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Professional historic heritage training courses offered in
Australia (degree, diploma, certificate and short
courses), 2010
Source: Heritage Trades and Professional Training Project. Report to Heritage Chairs of Australia and New Zealand. Godden
Mackay Logan Pty Ltd, August 2010.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Heritage trades training
 Conservation of the vast array of culturally significant buildings and
places in Australia relies on a body of heritage professionals and
tradespeople with relevant specialist skills.
 These skills are acquired through both formal and ‘on the job’ training.
 The number of practitioners with these skills has declined in recent years
and the population of appropriately skilled practitioners is ageing–leading
to a looming crisis in cultural heritage conservation.

Source: Heritage Trades and Professional Training Project. Report to Heritage Chairs of Australia and New Zealand. Godden
Mackay Logan Pty Ltd, August 2010.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Outlook for heritage
 The outlook for Australia’s heritage depends on government leadership
in two key areas:

Undertaking thorough assessments that lead to comprehensive
natural and cultural inventories and truly representative areas of
protected land; and

Changing management paradigms and resource allocation in
response to emerging threats – responding strategically, based on
integrated use of traditional and scientific knowledge.
 Improvement will require change.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
Photo: Purnululu National Park, World Heritage Area. Image copyright Rod Hartvigsen, Murranji Photography.
SOE 2011 - 17 headlines
 Earth is warming, and it is likely that we are already seeing the effects of climate
change in Australia. As the driest inhabitable continent, Australia is particularly
vulnerable to climate change.
 Early action by Australia to reduce emissions and to deploy targeted adaptation
strategies will be less costly than delayed action.
 Ambient air quality and air pollution management in Australia’s urban centres are
generally good, but the impact of urban air quality on health is still a matter of
serious concern
www.environment.gov.au/soe
SOE 2011 - 17 headlines (continued)
 Pressures of past human activities and recent droughts are affecting our inland
water systems.
 Meeting our water needs will be a critical challenge.
 Australia’s land environment is threatened by widespread pressures.
 Threats to our soil, including acidification, erosion and the loss of soil carbon, will
increasingly affect Australia’s agriculture unless carefully managed.
 The overall condition of the Australian marine environment is good, but integrated
management will be key to the future conservation of our ocean resources.
 The ocean climate is changing and we will need to adapt.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
SOE 2011 - 17 headlines (continued)
 The Antarctic environment is showing clear signs of climate change, which is likely
to have profound effects on Antarctic species and ecosystems.
 Our unique biodiversity is in decline, and new approaches will be needed to
prevent accelerating decline in many species.
 Our extraordinary and diverse natural and cultural heritage is currently in good
condition, but is threatened by natural and human processes, and a lack of public
sector resourcing.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
SOE 2011 - 17 headlines (continued)
 Australia’s built environment faces many pressures and consumes significant
natural resources, although consumption may be slowing.
 Coastal regions bring together many of the issues affecting other parts of the
environment, and coordinated management will be needed to mitigate pressures.
 Our environment is a national issue requiring national leadership and action.
 Effective environmental management requires adequate information.
 Australians cannot afford to see themselves as separate from the environment.
www.environment.gov.au/soe
For more information
email [email protected]
phone 1800 803 772, or visit
www.environment.gov.au/soe
www.environment.gov.au/soe