Community Environmental Monitoring
Communities and individuals worldwide are finding themselves increasingly concerned by the speed of environmental degradation, and the lack of serious remediation.
Globalisation, with the attendant lobbying and financial pressure applied by corporations to governments, seeks to remove protections and to weaken the ability of government and public institutions to respond in the interest of our society and our environment.
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There have in our home state (Victoria, Australia) been several recent cases of air and water monitoring, funded by government and carried out by commercial organisations, which have provided results which have later been shown to be substantially in error and grossly misleading.
Concerned local communities and individuals have meagre financial resources to back routine monitoring and research into local environmental issues.
This web site is being constructed to provide a resource which may help concerned groups to develop low cost monitoring programs of sufficient standard as to be useful in keeping government bodies honest and to keep track of activities which may be degrading our soil, water, air, and the integrity of the diverse and wonderful ecosystems upon which we ultimately depend.
It is hoped that many of you will have experience and ideas of your own which could be added to this site.
Photo: College Creek Rainforest, Victoria, 1998, Copyright Elaina Fraser
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At this time we forsee a need for material on the monitoring of:
- the condition of our rivers, streams, lakes and ocean,
- our air quality,
- rainfall and temperatures,
- soil erosion and nutrient movement resulting from farming and logging practices,
- destruction of the little remaining native forest in our largely desert continent,
- our creatures and plants,
- weedicides and pesticides,
- hydrocarbons (oil and petrol),
- genetically modified (GM) organisms,
- workplace and local health and safety,
- the nature and quantity of waste material, solid and liquid, created by industrial processes,
This website is set up as a result of an initiative of the (Australian) National Forest Summit conference, held April, 2001, in Daylesford (Victoria).
A brief workshop discussed monitoring of logging and water condition.
It confirmed the need for collection and dissemination of information on tools, techniques, and links to supportive organisations and sources of information.
Environment Protection Authorities in many states and countries can provide support. They are also in need of support from concerned citizens.
Here in Australia we are fortunate to have organisations which foster community action, such as:
Public broadcasters, such as our Australian Broadcasting Corporation, are also critical resources for dissemination of information in the public interest and need our support.
As environmental problems are worldwide, we welcome suggestions for enhancement from concerned people and organisations in other countries.
Material on low cost tools and techniques for monitoring water condition and logging practices are now being prepared.
Please come back occasionally to see how we are progressing.
Please be patient as the work is done by volunteers in spare time, of which there is never enough!
To explore tools and techniques please click here.
To contact us please click here
Last updated, JP, Design Productivity, 4/6/2001