Environmental reporting is undertaken by a number of South Australian Government agencies, including DEW, Landscape Boards and the EPA. In addition, State of the Environment Reporting is also undertaken at a national level, which includes state-based information.

DEW’s tracking of changes in South Australia’s environmental trend and condition report cards 2023 is used to inform the State of the Environment Report. It was noted the reliability of data specified in a number of the report cards is either poor or fair based on the collection methods, age of information and the applicability and accuracy of the information used.

There is also some uncertainty regarding the desired targets for the condition of the state’s environmental assets. It would be preferable to identify what success looks like and continually evaluate the effectiveness of policies and programs to ensure they are meeting the desired aims. This will help inform future state‑wide and regional priorities, and strategic planning.

A National Strategy and Action Plan was released by the Australian Government in 2018 to develop a common national approach for environmental reporting, which adopted environmental economic accounting. This principle was agreed to by all environment ministers across Australia in 2017. The report recognises many benefits that a consolidated approach to environmental reporting would bring to support environmental decision-making.

Therefore, environmental reporting for South Australia needs to be reviewed to improve and refine information that measures progress in responding to key environmental issues and to link indicators to the health and wellbeing of the community and the environment. Potential options for improvement may include:

• providing a road map that outlines future reporting processes to monitor and report on South Australia’s natural assets

• broadening the context for environmental reporting that incorporates indicators that link the environment to health, wellbeing and liveability in Greater Adelaide and regionally. This may include adopting other reporting frameworks such as natural capital accounting, including Environmental Economic Accounting, data visualisation tools and interactive reporting, and provision of real-time data. This will help inform the assessment of impacts and benefits from policy responses and support South Australia in keeping pace with national harmonisation of environmental accounting and reporting

• a statewide approach for monitoring to ensure consistency in collecting data that can be used for reporting on environmental condition at different time and spatial scales

• ensuring that indicators and data collection identify whether government programs are achieving the desired environmental outcomes

• improving capacity to collect/collate reliable and consistent data from various sources to assess and report on environmental trend and condition. This will help better inform state and federal government decisions for environmental protection and restoration at the landscape, regional or state scale

• aligning with national and international monitoring and reporting frameworks to enable consolidation and comparison of environmental data and the condition and trend of our environmental assets

• building meaningful relationships with Aboriginal peoples to incorporate their values, knowledge and expertise regarding trend and condition of the environment and associated responses

• ensuring that recommendations identified in the SOER are followed by actions for implementation, with clear roles and timeframes for delivering these recommendations

• reviewing reporting requirements in relevant legislation to ensure they are fit for purpose and have a clear role in the protection and restoration of our environment.