Leading the way in preparing the national 2021 State of the Environment Report is Dr Terri Janke, a Wuthathi/Meriam woman and an international authority on Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property. Terri has a pivotal role working with fellow co-chief authors, Professor Emma Johnston and Dr Ian Cresswell, to strengthen the link between traditional and western science. This marks the first time the report will be led by female co-chief authors, as well as the first time an Indigenous co-chief author has been appointed. Emma and Ian are two of Australia’s most distinguished environmental scientists who served as lead authors during SoE 2016.
The SoE Taskforce works together with a team of independent authors from across Australia on twelve environmental themes: Air quality, Antarctica, Biodiversity, Climate, Coasts, Extreme events, Heritage, Indigenous knowledge, Inland water, Land, Marine and Urban environments.
Indigenous and female voices are strongly represented across the report bringing a wholistic perspective of Indigenous knowledge and western science systems. Indigenous authors meet regularly and have developed Indigenous Co-Authorship Collaboration Guidelines, Strategy and an Indigenous Glossary to support the drafting, reporting and consultative process. This will ensure Indigenous views, values and knowledge are used to inform decision making for better environmental outcomes in caring for country.
The department recently hosted a live webinar to introduce a few of the SoE Indigenous co-authors who shared their vision for the 2021 report. The full webcast, including a Q&A session open to participants, is now available if you’d like to hear what the authors had to say.
What is State of Environment reporting?
Every 5 years the Australian Government conducts a comprehensive review of the state of the Australian environment.
National SoE reports provide information about environmental and heritage conditions, trends and pressures. They cover the Australian continent, surrounding seas and Australia's external territories.
The purpose of the State of the Environment Report is to:
- provide a strategic view to shape policy and action
- engage with users to influence behaviour
- assist with assessing our interventions as stewards for the Australian environment using the principles of collaborative partnerships to combine science, traditional and local knowledge.
SoE 2021
The next SoE report is due to be released in early 2022.
This is the first time the report will have co-chief authors, bringing both Indigenous and female representation into the leadership profile. Further improvements see a team of Indigenous co-authors contributing to all twelve themes: Air quality, Antarctica, Biodiversity, Climate, Coasts, Extreme events, Heritage, Indigenous, Inland water, Land, Marine and Urban, integrating Indigenous knowledge and western science systems. This will ensure Indigenous views, values and knowledge are used to inform decision making for better environmental outcomes in caring for country.
Our focus for improvement in 2021
Text version of Our focus for improvement in 2021
Clearly define the State of the Environment’s purpose and target our audience.
- Target audience groups to those with most influence on environmental outcomes – and create products to suit.
- Clarify purpose to get maximum impact. Our major risk is a lack of use to inform decision making and policy.
- Create multiple products for targeted audiences.
Ensure concordance with states and territories.
- Work with states and territories to streamline our indicators.
- Ensure and outcome focus for our measurement of change.
- Use international reporting frameworks such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
- Socialise narrative of environmental-economic accounts as they become available.
Partner with key players to improve fitness for purpose.
- Greatly improved Indigenous inclusion and engagement through co-authorship.
- Ensure user-centred design, implementing 2018 user research and partnering with key users.
- Link better to National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy data facilities such as the Atlas of Living Australia.
- Include input, case studies and data from key stakeholders such as proponents and non-government organisations.
This will give us:
- Better linking of national and sub-national reporting
- Increased trust of data and information
- Usable information for our key stakeholders
- Aspirational - ability to drill down from national view
- Improved access to our Indigenous knowledge
- Access to innovative ideas around data
- Better alignment with our international reporting
- Streamlined report
Visit the State of the Environment 2021 Have Your Say web page to see a snapshot of key comments on each of the twelve scoping papers and data on the responses we received.
Collaborative partnerships and SoE principles and purpose
Text version of Collaborative partnerships and SoE principles and purpose
Through collaborative partnerships with non-government organisations, peak bodies, industry, private business and indigenous groups we will combine science, traditional and local knowledge in a process of co-creation.
The purpose of the State of the Environment Report is to:
- provide a strategic view to shape policy and action
- engage with users to influence behaviour
- assist with assessing our interventions as stewards for the Australian environment
SoE website
The 2016 SoE was the first digital product providing greater flexibility for decision-makers, researchers and the public to explore and discover SoE information. We will build on the digital platform for the 2021 SoE, making it even easier to find information and underlying data, and deliver targeted products for different users.
State/territory reporting
Some states and territories produce SoE reports. We are working with the states and territories to improve our linking of outcome-based indicators to make it easier to see what is going on across the nation and at regional levels.
Some regional-scale reporting also occurs in many areas throughout Australia.
Visit state and territory government websites to find out about their reporting processes: