State of Natural Resources interim report 2019: Evidence

Progress on evidence gaps in our first report

The development of the 5-step method for assessing sustainable management of natural resources has helped us focus on what evidence we now need.

Some of the earlier identified needs are no longer required. In other cases work is planned or has begun.

Identifying new evidence needs

It’s important to remember that our evidence needs are the evidence that we need to assess the sustainable management of natural resources that we don’t think we currently have.

The evidence needs will change according to the pressures and opportunities for achieving the sustainable management of natural resources.

Our specialists, working with others, have considered what else we may need for us to assess the sustainable management of Wales' natural resources.

We've listed these as newly-identified needs.

We've prioritised the needs by asking a series of questions:

is it a critical need
how much time does it require
which measures and goals does it relate to
does it have added value
what are the knock-on effects

This will help us decide which needs are most important, as well as the timeframe we need them in.

Affordability is not yet part of our prioritisation but will affect our actions.

Help with our evidence needs

See our list of prioritised evidence needs.

If you think you can help us with these, or can point us towards existing information, please get in touch sonarr@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk

Using evidence from Area Statements

The Area Statements process is gathering new evidence about the challenges, risks and opportunities for sustainable management of natural resources.

There are seven area statements covering Wales and the marine environment.

Our next report will include information emerging from Area Statements.

Evidence for measuring the sustainable management of natural resources

To maintain and enhance natural resources, we need to measure the state, resilience and benefits we get from them.

We intend to use a natural resources inventory.

This will bring together economic, environmental and social data into a single framework.

We'll use information from a range of sources such as the ONS, UK National Ecosystem Accounts, Natural England’s Logic Chain project, Environment and Rural Affairs Monitoring and Modelling Platform.

The Information Pyramid shows the flow of information from basic data to a set of headline indicators, or measures:

Information pyramid Eng

Benefits of a natural resources inventory

An inventory approach allows us to join-up information on the environment, society and the economy. It does this by tracking the flow of benefits from natural resources to people.

It will give us a wide view of value capturing the social and non-monetary benefits we gain from natural resources.

Capturing social, environmental and economic values will help us meet our well-being goals.

Natural resource accounting and inventories are a key part of the UN Environment Programme’s approach and is in line with Welsh Government policy.

See our template for compiling the natural resources inventory.