Lessons from Tasmania's Monitoring and Reporting System for National Parks and Reserves

Over the past twenty years, the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service has made considerable progress in developing robust yet practical systems for evaluating the effectiveness of management for its terrestrial national parks... [ view full abstract ]

Over the past twenty years, the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service has made considerable progress in developing robust yet practical systems for evaluating the effectiveness of management for its terrestrial national parks and World Heritage Areas. The culmination of this effort is the state-wide (jurisdictional) Monitoring and Reporting System for Tasmania’s National Parks and Reserves which is progressively being built and implemented. Key features of the system are that it is outcomes-focused, evidence-based, operationally practical, and transparent to all interested parties. Elements of potential interest to marine estate managers include: the adaptive management cycle; the process of developing the evaluation framework; and examples of the different types of evaluation reports generated by the system.