Monitoring and Evaluation Trials: Northern Territory Region

Product Information

Phase II of the Northern Territory Monitoring and Evaluation Framework Trials aimed to determine the NT’s capacity to meet natural resource condition reporting requirements under the M%E framework. The main focus of phase II was toward the case study discussed in section 7. This work centered around
the construction of reporting products for the indicators for Native Vegetation Extent and Distribution.

The exercise raised a number of issues both technical and institutional in terms of data quality, coverage and use. The case study also highlighted the importance of surrogate information if the NT is to report comprehensively on resource condition. Despite these issues a product was able to be delivered
successfully.

Considerable difficulties were faced during this phase and were mainly due to the timeliness of the trials and the current state of state and regional NRM planning in the NT. Specifically, the release of the NT NRM Plan for public comment coincided with the finalizing of this report. Contextual information in terms resource condition targets and resource management activities were undeveloped and hence unavailable during the trials. Hence, statements and comments about the development of state or regional reporting systems at this stage must be regarded as hypothetical.

Despite the difficulties, the findings from the trials have raised important issues that the NT will need to address for success in future NRM activities. It is believed these results will assist in the development of future systems and programs for both DIPE and the NT’s endeavors in monitoring and evaluation.