Much of what the state could aspire to in this policy field, in terms of the vegetation policy framework proposed here, will need to be responsive to national
requirements. Requirements or obligations under various international instruments will often drive these in turn. It is useful to look at the goals, focal areas, targets or priority areas of these. Ideally, we could expect a nested hierarchy of elements. At the broadest level, it is useful to begin with the conceptual framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005), which has four principal elements dealing with direct and indirect drivers of change, human wellbeing, and ecosystem services. Within the latter category there are four services provided by
ecosystems—termed provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services. The noteworthy aspect of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment approach is that it is human-centred, not at the expense of ecosystem values but recognising that human standard of living is bound up in the care of ecosystems. The principles of
ecologically sustainable development pervade the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment approach. There is recognition of the need for local communities to be sustained by ecosystem provisions and services, while such ecosystems themselves are sustained.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) requested the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment be undertaken to assist its own work but the Convention has more direct influence over our policy because it is a formal instrument. The
Convention, to which Australia is a signatory, is expressed in 42 articles. Apart from those dealing with the machinery of implementation and process, there are 14 (Articles 6–19) that can be applied directly as headings for vegetation management. These are shown in Table 15. Each measure can be linked to the measures of the Australian Biodiversity Strategy and the goals and actions in the draft of Australia‘s Native Vegetation Framework. The Caring for Our Country national priority areas (Commonwealth of Australia 2008) are linked to most of the Articles. The
particularly strong linkages are: building ecosystem resilience (link to Article 8); knowledge for all (Articles 7 and 13); getting results (all, but discoverable through actions under Article 7; involving indigenous people (a cross-cutting theme in several Articles particularly those dealing with protection or use of indigenous knowledge); and measuring success (Article 7).
The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation is an international framework for policy makers and references itself to the CBD. There are 16 targets that are measurable and the strategy is output-oriented. The strategy is also species-oriented and the Gran Canaria Declaration (Gran Canaria Declaration II, 2006) is an attendant document dealing specifically with climate change and plant conservation, invoking ex situ conservation strategies in particular. There are a number of guidelines and initiatives erected to help parties in their work. These include the Bonn Guidelines for Access and Benefit Sharing, the Addis Ababa Principles and Guidelines for Sustainable Use, the Global Taxonomy Initiative, and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation to name only a few. Part of Australia‘s response to the climate change threat is described in a document by Council of Heads of Australian Botanic
Table 15: Articles of the Convention on Biological Diversity Relevant to Developing a Vegetation Framework, and their typification
Article number Name of Article Typification
6 General measures for Conservation and
Sustainable Use Strategies, plans
7 Identification and monitoring Evaluation and feedback
8 In-situ conservation Tools
9 Ex-situ conservation Tools
10 Sustainable use of Components of
Biodiversity Sustainable economy
11 Incentive measures Tools
12 Research and training Knowledge
13 Public education and awareness Social learning 14 Impact Assessment and Minimizing
Adverse Impacts Management
15 Access to Genetic Resources Sustainable economy 16 Access to and Transfer of Technology Sustainable economy
17 Exchange of Information Tools
18 Technical and Scientific Cooperation Knowledge 19 Handling of Biotechnology and Distribution
of its Benefits Sustainable economy
Despite the problems and pitfalls of international policymaking (a discussion of which is beyond the scope of this thesis) providing drivers for national and sub- national policy, the Convention on Biological Diversity is one of the most widely supported and well established of instruments at this level. The Convention also supports a range of other protocols and guidelines that directly influence Australia‘s approach to aspects of vegetation management (e.g. Bonn Guidelines). The CBD Articles thereby provide a reference, to which can be mapped the provisions in a new state vegetation policy framework.
The RFA expires in 2017, the Commonwealth implementing mechanism—the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999—will have been recently revised and the demands on vegetation managers will have increased as the demands on vegetation for multiple sustainable benefits become more pressing. The history of Tasmanian vegetation management falls into some broad phases, which were identified in Chapter 3. A watershed occurred when shifts in societal attitudes
in the late 1960s led to a rapid increase in measures that directly or indirectly assisted vegetation management. The most significant was the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1970.
In Chapter 5 it was argued that Tasmania‘s policy developed, particularly after the 1990s, as a series of responses to Commonwealth agenda-setting, driven largely by national responsibilities under various international conventions, treaties and agreements. The Commonwealth began asserting control and direction over natural resource management in the states from the 1980s and 1990s. The direction
provided for vegetation management is a good example of this. As was also
demonstrated in Chapters 5, the interrelationship between the tiers of government is still being defined. It is clear that the Australian Government will bring to bear more influence on natural resource management decisions, its arm strengthened by the resourcing it receives from the vertical fiscal imbalance and the programs it is therefore able to fund, as well as the momentum towards national coordination. However, the Commonwealth does not always act unilaterally and the nature of measures developed for strategic national planning around vegetation have been advanced at policy and technical levels in conjunction with state officials, through the Council of Australian Governments framework.
Monitoring, evaluation and feedback in the development of vegetation presently occurs mainly at the programs and projects level. However, the main policy framework, the Regional Forest Agreement, has a review and policy learning provision provided for in the five-yearly reviews. Overall however, the current failures and missing opportunities for lesson learning result perhaps from many reviews and evaluations in a disjointed policy landscape, as well as no satisfactory response to the question: who learns?
The current vegetation management policy framework can be viewed at three levels: the macro (national), the meso (state) and the micro (on-ground,
implementation policies, NRM and local government, within state activities of narrow scope). The national activities are driven largely by the imperatives of its obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity and other agreements. These are addressed through preparation of national strategies, most of the relevant ones being discussed in Chapter 4. The Biodiversity Strategy is the most relevant
and the Native Vegetation Framework is the pertinent implementing instrument for vegetation under the Biodiversity Strategy. A new Native Vegetation Framework will set the pattern of work for the states for the next five years and funding of state work programs under the ―Caring for our Country‖ (CFOC) program will likely need to address both the framework as well as the CFOC business plan.
The Ecological Sustainable Development (ESD) process begun in the early 1990s would have formed a broad policy framework within which policy for most natural resource management themes would have been embedded. While ESD principles have been absorbed into general natural resource management policy thinking (for example Clarke, 1998, points out that Tasmania‘s Resource Management Planning System was developed according to ESD principles) there is no current explicit national ESD policy.
The overriding policy framework for vegetation management in Australia is the National Biodiversity Strategy that binds all Australian governments and fulfils Article 6A of the Convention on Biodiversity Conservation. This requires all parties to have national standards and strategies in place. Australia‘s first strategy was produced in 1992 and reviewed in 2001, resulting in the finding that significant advances had been made and some objectives remained to be fulfilled. In April 2006 the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council (NRMMC) agreed to a full review of the strategy and a Review Task Group was appointed that reported to the Natural Resource Policies and Programs Committee. The NRMMC agreed that the review would include a significant consultation process, particularly with indigenous Australia and with industry. An indigenous issues paper was subsequently prepared. Among the findings of the stakeholder research
commissioned early in the process was the high level of consistency noted across existing state and national strategies.
At the time of writing, a consultation draft had been cleared by the NRM Ministerial Council and released. The new strategy will address Australia‘s obligations under the new Convention to Combat Desertification, as well as the international obligations addressing water. It is expected that the new priority areas will include: building ecosystem resilience, knowledge for all, getting results, involving indigenous peoples, and measuring success.
The implementation of the strategy will require wide responsibility and will be intended to guide policy commitments. The second national terrestrial biodiversity assessment, which was released in late 2009, is the audit of whether the outcomes of biodiversity conservation have been achieved. In other words it is the evaluation mechanism.