‘State of the Environment’ reports require integrated and holistic approaches – Lessons from Australia’s marine experience
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21521240 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rowan Trebilco (0000-0001-9712-8016, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, corresponding author), Cass Hunter (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), Mibu Fischer (0000-0002-1216-3451, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), Karen Evans (0000-0003-0630-1560, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere), Alistair J Hobday (0000-0002-3194-8326, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere), Linda Thomas (0000-0002-3495-4684) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 181 |
| Pages | 106853 |
| Publication date | 2025-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Marine Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0308-597X • E-ISSN: 1872-9460 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.marpol.2025.106853 |
| OpenAlex | W4412720575 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 37 |
Regular assessments of the ‘state of the environment’ are common approaches implemented to track and guide sustainable management of marine social-ecological systems at scales ranging from local to global. In Australia, a regular national State of the Environment Report (SoE) is required as a legislative requirement and tabled in Parliament by the relevant Minister. Each SoE comprises a set of thematic reports, authored by independent domain experts on behalf of the government. For Australia’s most recent 2021 SoE report, several significant changes were introduced compared to previous reports. The most important of these was that the report presented Indigenous Knowledge and perspectives. Here we provide a brief synopsis of the structure and approach of the 2021 Marine thematic report and consider key needs and opportunities for further improvements – both for Australia’s SoE reporting and more generally for assessments of marine social-ecological systems. We suggest that integrated and holistic assessment and reporting approaches are required to properly understand the ‘big picture’ across sectors, identify and respond to problems arising from interactions among sectors, and to adequately understand, avoid and/or respond to system-level processes such as feedbacks and tipping points. Comprehensive representation of Indigenous science, led by Indigenous authors will be key to meeting the imperative of inclusive and respectful stewardship of country. We propose a set of six key principles to support such integrated and holistic state of the environment reporting: coordination, integration, transparency, responsiveness, inclusiveness, and system-orientation (“CITRIS” principles)
Environmental ethics · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Coastal and Marine Management · Computer Science · Environmental and Social Impact Assessments · Environmental Science · Marine and fisheries research · Philosophy · Geology · Oceanography
Systems integration for global sustainability
Western science and traditional knowledge
Selecting among five common modelling approaches for integrated environmental assessment and management
“Two‐Eyed Seeing”
The Care Principles for Indigenous Data Governance
The Fair Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship
Sustainability Science
Traditional ecological knowledge in innovation governance
Advancing sustainability through mainstreaming a social–ecological systems perspective
Yarning About Yarning as a Legitimate Method in Indigenous Research
Indigenous climate knowledges
Some Thoughts about the Philosophical Underpinnings of Aboriginal Worldviews
Tomorrow's Country
Australian Aboriginal Peoples' Seasonal Knowledge
Yarning as protected space
Indigenous Methodologies
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |