Introduction
This is the sixth state of the environment report for South Australia since the first in 1988; it provides the latest assessment of the condition of the state’s natural resources and trends in environmental quality.
Good-quality, up-to-date information is needed to allow us to manage and protect our environment effectively. We need to know the condition of our natural assets, about trends in condition over time, about the causes of changes in environmental quality and about the effectiveness of management responses to those changes.
Statutory state of the environment reports, produced every five years under the Environment Protection Act 1993 (SA), are an important contribution to public information about the South Australian environment. The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) synthesises information from multiple sources to identify and describe trends in the condition of the natural environment. This information is reported to the government and to the people of South Australia, and informs policy, management and behaviour.