The EPA has a role in environmental performance evaluation and is expected by State Government to hold NRM agencies accountable for delivering environmental outcomes. To this end, the EPA has adapted the environmental management systems model to assist agencies improve their NRM decision-making process and deliver on desired environmental outcomes.

The EPA and NRM agencies are working closely together so that the process for the establishment and review of environmental performance is well understood by all parties.

Role of the EPA in NRM

The EPA is a statutory body and has the roles of NRM auditing and State of the Environment (SOE) reporting.

Section 16, Part II of the Environmental Protection Act (1986), empowers the EPA to undertake a range of functions related to NRM. At an overarching level, but in an inclusive way, these are:

• setting environmental values, objectives and criteria/targets which stakeholders should take into account when giving attention to their environmental responsibilities; and
• evaluating environmental performance over intermediate-time scales (approximately 5 yearly), against environmental values, objectives and criteria/targets.

The EPA believes it can best contribute to the achievement of NRM outcomes through partnership with all stakeholders that have an operational responsibility for the environment (including the community).

EPA's Decision Making Framework for NRM

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has set down a decision making framework to facilitate the achievement of NRM outcomes, from which government and the community can carry out their responsibilities. This is termed the "NRM Framework".

Consistent with the approach used in the broad range of national and state NRM activities, the EPA's decision making model provides a linkage between activities such as programs, policies, strategies, projects and other activities.

The key components of the NRM Framework include:

• identifying environmental assets and their corresponding environmental values and beneficial uses;
• identifying and defining threats to those environmental values;
• prioritizing assets and threats;
• formulating policy, objectives and criteria/targets to address environmental impacts and to protect environmental values;
• implementing programs and projects in accordance with policies;
• monitoring change in resource condition as a result of management activities;
• evaluating the effectiveness of the policies and management activities; and
• making recommendations to improve resource condition and environmental management performance.

In the implementation of the NRM framework, the role of the EPA will be to ensure that environmental values are protected. To achieve this, there needs to be compatibility and consistency in the management of the State's natural resources. This includes the lead agency(s) dealing with the regional NRM groups in the development of regional NRM strategies.

Definitions: Environmental Values: particular values or uses of the environment that are important for a healthy ecosystem or for public benefit, welfare, safety or health and which require protection from the effects of pollution, waste discharges and deposits (and any other forms of environmental harm). Environmental Quality Objectives: a specific management goal for a part of the environment and is either ecologically based by describing the desired level of health of the ecosystem or socially based by describing the environmental quality required to maintain specific human uses. Environmental Quality Criteria/targets: are the numerical values or narrative statements that serve as benchmarks for environmental performance or condition.

State Monitoring and Evaluation Framework Summary

Monitoring and evaluation are key components of the model that the EPA use to evaluate environmental performance of the NRM sectors. Monitoring and evaluation is concerned with the collection and analysis of data/information to determine whether NRM objectives are being met. Monitoring and evaluation also informs NRM agencies on the difference between actual versus desired environmental outcomes and performance.

The total sum of monitoring and evaluation activities across government and others involved in NRM should ideally inform the State on how it is tracking in terms of environmental performance.

The State monitoring and evaluation framework embodies all of the key natural resource management (NRM) monitoring and evaluation activities so that an overarching assessment can be made on the condition of Western Australia's natural environment. The State of the Environment Reporting (SOER) programme brings all of this information together so that the State's key environmental issues can be reported.