DRAFT REPORT — JANUARY 2010 Feedback and Enquiries Feedback or enquiries in relation to this report should be addressed to: Parks and Wildlife Service: Email: [email protected] or Postal address: Parks and Wildlife Service GPO Box 1751 Hobart Tasmania 7001Australia Recommended Citation Parks and Wildlife Service, 2013, Evaluating Management Effectiveness: The Monitoring and Reporting System for Tasmania‘s National Parks and Reserves. Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment. Hobart Tasmania. Evaluating Management Effectiveness THE MONITORING AND REPORTING SYSTEM FOR TASMANIA‘S NATIONAL PARKS AND RESERVES Final Report 2013 Parks and Wildlife Service Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment Hobart TASMANIA Foreword There is growing community interest in management of Tasmania‘s national parks and reserves. With almost half of the State of Tasmania protected in public national parks and reserves, Tasmania‘s national parks and reserves system is amongst the best in the world. Reserve managers, stakeholders and the broader community need reliable information about how management is performing. This report presents the management effectiveness monitoring and reporting system for Tasmania‘s national parks and reserves managed by the Parks and Wildlife Service under the National Parks and Reserves Management Act 2002. The Monitoring and Reporting System for Tasmania‘s National Parks and Reserves provides all stakeholders with reliable factual information and measured evidence about management progress, achievements and challenges. It is important for management agencies to establish effectiveness monitoring and reporting systems to better understand how management is travelling with respect to objectives. Factual feedback about management performance helps to guide the necessary adjustments to ensure the intended results are achieved. Development of the Monitoring and Reporting System has been undertaken in close consultation with staff and stakeholders. The resulting system not only delivers performance information that addresses the formal responsibilities for reserve management but also provides information that is relevant and meaningful to reserve managers, stakeholders and the broader community. We are confident that the Monitoring and Reporting System for Tasmania‘s National Parks and Reserves is robust and practical. Proof of concept has already been established through a pilot demonstration of the system which is operating successfully. Feedback on the system has been positive and external peer reviewers have endorsed and welcomed the Monitoring and Reporting System. Building and implementing the Monitoring and Reporting System is an identified agency priority under the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment (DPIPWE) Corporate Plan 2011-2014. When fully operational, the Monitoring and Reporting System will be accessible to the public on the Parks and Wildlife Service website. We commend Tasmania‘s Monitoring and Reporting System as an improved model of jurisdictional performance measurement which supports the management agency to operate as effectively, efficiently and economically as is practicable. We invite others to consider the approaches and tools presented in this report for uptake and application elsewhere. Peter Mooney Kim Evans GENERAL MANAGER DIRECTOR PARKS AND WILDLIFE SERVICE NATIONAL PARKS AND WILDLIFE iii Tasmania‘s national parks and reserves are some of the most beautiful and inspiring places on Earth. People want to know how the management of Tasmania‘s national parks and reserves is progressing. Wineglass Bay, Freycinet National Park Photo: Joe Shemesh What staff have to say about this monitoring and reporting system ‗The Monitoring and Reporting System provides an important mechanism to measure whether, and to what degree, planned processes and outcomes were achieved. This improves transparency and enhances accountability and also provides a valuable record of major projects undertaken by the Parks and Wildlife Service.‘ – Keith Springer Project Manager, Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service ‗Planning is all about coming to agreement on a vision for the future and then making it happen. But how do you know when you‘ve arrived at that vision - and what if it‘s not what you hoped? The Monitoring and Reporting System is like a GPS, it tells you how you are travelling on the journey, whether you‘ve arrived and even shows you some of the roads less travelled that would reward exploration on the way. As the Parks and Wildlife Service manages an increasing estate (approaching half of Tasmania), such a ‗navigational aid‘ will become an indispensible tool to help manage this complexity and create a better future for our parks.‘ – Tim O‘Loughlin Planner for the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, 1992-2013 Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service ‗The Monitoring and Reporting System (MRS) for the first time provides a comprehensive framework that will be useful for organising our work to ensure outcomes are aligned to our legislative responsibilities and the expectations of stakeholders and the community.‘ – Mark Bryce Director (Operations) Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service iv What others have to say about this monitoring and reporting system ‗I reiterate ... the importance of giving high priority and weight to this important initiative. It is vital that the momentum ... continues to build, and that management effectiveness be articulated into key areas of Parks and Wildlife Service activity, in particular strategic, management and operational plans and associated management processes. There is also a need to link such instruments into budgetary processes.‘ – Tony Ibbott Chair, National Parks and Wildlife Advisory Council ‗Congratulations on producing such a thoughtful and meticulous approach to what is really a very complex issue. There is clearly a lot of high order thinking that has gone into this report, much of which we are considering emulating in our work.‘ – Peter Stathis Manager, Management Effectiveness Unit NSW Parks and Wildlife, DECCW ‗Overall, the document and proposed management effectiveness assessment system will make a useful contribution to national management effectiveness assessment systems. I especially liked the templates and the ability to drill down through detail. These will be easy for managers to follow, with good examples provided, and will provide a great reflection tool for them to consider their management and how it could be improved.‘ – Dr Chris Jacobson School of Integrative Systems, University of Queensland ‗An excellent contribution to building effective environmental management systems. I‘m especially impressed with its relevance across reporting scales, the risk-based building-block approach and the focus on evidence-based evaluation.‘ – Carolyn Cameron Assistant Secretary, Strategic Approaches Branch Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (SEWPaC) ‗This system plows a lot of new ground and should help not only Tasmanian parks, but could also serve as a model for parks worldwide to evaluate how well park management is accomplishing its objectives. This document is very well written and organised and clearly lays out what it is trying to do and how to do it.‘ – Peter Landres Ecologist Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, Montana, USA ‗The document is excellent… I especially like how [planned outcomes] are divided into ‗great‘, ‗acceptable‘ and ‗unacceptable‘. This seems like a very practical and actionable approach for managers…The way the material [is organised] is very user friendly and accessible. Congratulations for a job well done.‘ – Dr Jamison Ervin Senior Conservation Scientist The Nature Conservancy, USA ‗I do really like the idea of developing a monitoring strategy and approach like this and am currently recommending this for another state.‘ – Dr Marc Hockings Vice-Chair (Science, Knowledge and Management of Protected Areas) IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas v Contents SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................... ix Definitions of Terms ..................................................................................................xvi MAIN REPORT 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................1 What and why .............................................................................................................1 Tasmania‟s national parks and reserves .....................................................................1 The need for effectiveness monitoring and reporting ...................................................1 Effectiveness evaluation – an identified strategic priority at all levels ..........................2 Objective of this initiative .............................................................................................5 2. DEVELOPMENT OF THE MONITORING AND REPORTING SYSTEM ............................................5 Key considerations ......................................................................................................5 Approach to developing the system.............................................................................6 The adaptive management cycle .................................................................................7 Mandates for reserve management