The Conservation Effectiveness Monitoring Program (CEMP) is an overarching ecosystem condition monitoring framework for the ACT conservation estate. The program identifies and brings together multiple datasets from both internal and external groups to the ACT Government to make new, large-scale assessments about ecosystem condition and management effectiveness, but also to ensure that monitoring across the ACT is coordinated, systematic, and robust.
The overarching goals of the CEMP program are to:
- Detect early warning signs of change to ecosystem condition within reserves.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of management actions in achieving conservation outcomes.
- Provide evidence to support land management decisions.
- Identify and prioritise knowledge gaps for future research.
- Encourage ACT Government staff, community groups and research institutions to contribute towards biodiversity monitoring and research in the ACT.
The CEMP team brings together the impressive datasets collected by passionate groups across the ACT, analysing and providing feedback to land managers about the condition of different ecosystems and informing management priorities.
Monitoring plans
Condition Assessments for grasslands (lowland (11.0 MB) and upland (4.1 MB)), aquatic and riparian and bogs and fens have been completed. The woodlands and forests programs will be released in coming years.
These plans are reviewed every 4 years to assess for conservation effectiveness trends, targeting the question "Are current conservation practices leading to improvement or stability of our important ecosystems?".
The team collates data about each ecosystem collected from internal groups such as Parks and Conservation Service (PCS), Natural Resource Management (NRM), Conservation Research and Offsets, and from external collaborators such as the Australian National University (ANU), the University of Canberra (UC), Canberra Ornithologists Group (COG), FrogWatch and VegWatch.
The data is organised, analysed and used to inform useful ecosystem condition indicators and metrics. The condition of these important components are summarised using a traffic light system with varying degrees of certainty and trends.
This data is also used to assess how effective management actions, such as weeding, are for decreasing weeds and producing positive outcomes such as improvements in the the condition of the ecosystem.
Based on their evidence, the team makes recommendations on improvements to monitoring and management, knowledge gaps and data management.