ENVIRONMENT —
WESTERN AUSTRALIAN BIODIVERSITY AUDIT
1273. Hon DIANE EVERS to the Minister for Environment:
I refer to the minister's
response to my question on notice 2300 on the Western Australian Biodiversity
Audit II, in which he said —
For some assets data is incomplete,
including some priority species, wetlands and threatened ecological
communities, and it is not appropriate to publicly release incomplete datasets.
(1) When will the
government finish the data collection necessary to complete the datasets for
all priority species, wetlands and threatened ecological communities?
(2) Given that
the information available to the public on the Biodiversity Audit II website is
generally high level and lacks detail, what
criteria does the government apply to determine whether a dataset is complete?
(3) Biodiversity
Audit II does not include marine environments. Will the government consider
including marine data; if yes, when will the government collect marine data and
release it; and, if no, why not?
(4) Will the
government consider developing citizen science projects to gather data that
could be contributed to the state's biodiversity audit?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the
member for some notice of the question.
(1)–(4) Biodiversity
Audit II was a snapshot in time for terrestrial biodiversity. The government
recognises the value of citizen science contributions to information on the
state's biodiversity assets; however, there are currently no plans for
further development of the Biodiversity Audit II by the Department of
Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. Data in the Biodiversity Audit II
was determined to be incomplete if raw data that had been collected had not
been checked and verified within the project time frame. Given the honourable
member's significant interest in this matter, I would be happy to offer
her a briefing to answer any further questions about the Biodiversity Audit II.