NatStats 2008
Natural Resource
Management – An ABS
Perspective
Peter Harper
Deputy Australian Statistician
Population, Labour, Industry and
Environment Statistics Group
Australian Bureau of Statistics
A framework for thinking about
environmental issues
Response
Drivers
Impact
Pressures
State
An example
• Driving forces
– Population
• Pressure
– Agricultural activity
• State
– Land quality -- salinity
• Impact
– Economic losses
• Response
– NRM practices
The information base
• Physical science is mainly concerned with
state, as well as certain pressures and
impacts
– This is the realm of scientific information
• Drivers and many pressures are economic
and social in nature
• Many impacts are also of a social and
economic nature
• The ABS is well placed to measure the
economic and social dimensions of
environmental issues
• Many responses are affected through the
actions of businesses and people
– The ABS is also well placed to measure these
Integration is vital
• The physical, social and economic
dimensions of environment issues need
to be collectively understood, because of
the linkages
• This requires common frameworks,
standards and classifications
– For NRM issues, geographic integration is
particularly important
• Information should be presented in a
way that is consistent and coherent
Environmental accounting
• An organising framework
– Presents comparable information in a
systematic framework
– Encourages development of
comprehensive and consistent data
sets over time
– Provides a framework from which a
range of indicators can be produced
Environmental-economic
accounting
• An emerging discipline
• Enables the relationship between the
environment and the economy (and society) to
be analysed
• Presents environmental data in a way that is
consistent with broader economic data, such as
the national accounts
• Shows the distribution of environmental
resources across different parts of the economy
• Enables monetary valuations of environmental
assets and environment-related flows
• Follows international standards to enable
international comparability
SEEA 2003
• System of Environmental and Economic
Accounting
• Provides policy makers with indicators and
descriptive statistics to monitor economicenvironment interactions as well as a database
to identify paths to sustainable development
• Four categories of accounts
– Flow accounts for pollution, energy and materials
– Environmental expenditure and resource
management expenditure accounts
– Natural resource asset accounts
– Non-market flow and environmentally adjusted
aggregates
• Currently being redeveloped
The ABS tool kit
• Surveys of businesses
– NRM issues related to industries, including
agriculture
• Surveys of households
– NRM issues related to persons
• Land-based surveys
– NRM issues related to particular geographic
areas
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Economic-environmental accounts
Analysis
Classifications and standards
Assistance to other information
producing bodies – statistical ‘know-how’
ABS NRM-related products
• Water account for Australia 2004-05
– Experimental monetary water account
– Experimental estimates of regional water usage
• Water Use on Australian Farms
• Natural Resource Management on Australian
Farms
• Farm Management and Climate
• Environmental Issues – People’s Views and
Practices
• Environment expenditure, local government
• Salinity on Australian Farms
• Land Management: Eurobodalla Shire & Fitzroy
and Livingston Shires
• Australia’s Environment – Issues and Trends
Agriculture Resource
Management Survey 2007-08
• Purpose: to inform Caring for Our Country
initiative
• Includes issues such as
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Details of commodities produced
Land preparation for crops and pastures
Soil condition management practices
Fertiliser use
Water use
Surface water management practices
Practices to protect the environment for conservation
purposes
– Practices for dealing with adverse seasonal
conditions
• Results available May 2009
The challenges
• Filling information gaps
– Unlocking the statistical potential of relevant
administrative or regulatory data sets
– New collections where needed
• Greater integration of disparate data sources
– Particularly to understand linkages and
consequences
• Making information visible, accessible and
usable – A National Environment Information
System
The ABS cannot do these things by itself – it
needs to work in partnership with others