Monitoring and evaluation trials, Victoria region, phase 1 report
An assessment of proposed National Land and Water Resources Audit (NLWRA) Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group (MEWG) indicators for reporting on natural resource condition and trend considered their effectiveness in the context of Victorian Catchment Management Authority (CMA) regions. The review highlighted a number of broader issues relating to matters for target (MFT) and indicators. Most of the CMAs strongly support catchment indicators and are focused on trying to deliver outcomes. They are, however, not as conversant with MFT concepts, and there was significant uncertainty about the MFT framework because of the cumbersome bureaucratic terminology used. CMAs expressed reasonable satisfaction with the theoretical list of MFT indicators but had significant problems in applying many of them because of a lack of baseline data, particularly those relating to soil condition, estuarine and coastal zones, significant native species and ecological communities and wetlands. There were also significant concerns about the MFT reporting requirements and conflicting requirements at various jurisdictional levels. A number of actions are identified to advance regional natural resource management (NRM) monitoring, evaluation and reporting capacities.