Where is Tasmania’s State of the Environment Report?
UPDATE: WE WON!
On 29 September 2022, the Planning Minister announced he would direct the Tasmanian Planning Commission to produce a State of the Environment (SOE) Report by June 2024.
“We welcome the Government’s announcement that State of the Environment Reports are back on the agenda. The Government has been flying blind on the health of most of Tasmania’s ecosystems since 2009. We urgently need an updated Report delivered well before the next state election,” said Eloise Carr, Director the Australia Institute Tasmania.
Tasmania has not published an official State of the Environment Report since 2009.
Since then, our environment has endured three high-impact bushfire seasons, a more than doubling of the salmon industry and our East Coast waters are warming four times faster than the global average.
The latest Australian State of the Environment Report tells an alarming story of the decline of natural and cultural heritage nationally: increasing rates of extinction, climate change impacts, declining kelp forests and land clearing as a chief culprit in the escalating threat to wildlife and habitats.
But Tasmanians are in the dark about the scale and detail of the problems affecting the environment we all know and love because the government has failed to do its job.
The State of the Environment Report will tell us how we are managing (or mis-managing) human impacts on our forests, waterways, wildlife, coastlines or oceans, and help guide government policy responses to new trends or problems.
The government has already twice failed its statutory duty and the next report is due soon. The Tasmanian government must not fail the people and our ecosystems again.
To the Premier of Tasmania –
Tasmania has not published an official report on the state of our environment for 13 years.
The latest Australian State of the Environment Report paints a grim picture of the decline of natural and cultural heritage nationally.
Tasmanians have a right to know about the state of our environment -- our wildlife, forests, coastlines, oceans and ultimately all Tasmanians will pay the price.
We, the undersigned, urge the Tasmanian Government to urgently commission the next independent State of the Environment Report.