S oE 2011 – Heritage chapter overview

1. 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: soe@environment.gov.au

2. Photo Aerial view of the Pilbara by Andrew Griffiths - Lensaloft Presentation – Heritage chapter overview

3. 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 1996 2001 2006 2011

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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)

7. 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

9. 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.

11. 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

13. Assessment summaries in the report

14. 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.

15. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. Importance of preserving natural icons and landmarks • Source: Deakin University, National survey of public attitudes to Australian heritage. Unpublished report to SEWPaC, 2011

29. Importance of preserving human-made icons and landmarks • Source: Deakin University, National survey of public attitudes to Australian heritage. Unpublished report to SEWPaC, 2011

30. 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.

31. 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”.

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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.

35. Membership of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, Australia, 2006-10 • Source: Australia ICOMOS

36. National Trust membership, 2005-09 • Source: Australian Council of National Trusts

37. 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.

38. 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.

39. 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.

41. 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

42. 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.

43. 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.

44. 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.

45. For more information email ciu@environment.gov.auphone 1800 803 772, or visit www.environment.gov.au/soe