The rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin are unique on a world scale. River flows are highly variable and unpredictable, creating a distinctive ‘boom and bust’ environment. These rivers are relatively pristine and unregulated but face challenges from climate change, introduced species, agriculture, tourism and mining activities.

A strategic adaptive management framework is being used to determine if the condition of the Lake Eyre Basin is shifting beyond a natural condition and to develop management responses to address these changes.

The first step in this process was to clearly express a widely shared vision for the Lake Eyre Basin:

Lake Eyre Basin – Australia’s unique, natural, desert river system:
healthy environments, sustainable industries, vibrant communities, adaptive cultures.

This vision has been developed over the past three years through consultation among Lake Eyre Basin stakeholders including the Community Advisory Committee and Scientific Advisory Panel. Members of these committees include representatives from, industry, science, community and indigenous and cultural values.

The ongoing challenge is for science, community, industry and management stakeholders to work together to understand thresholds of change for Lake Eyre Basin environmental assets. By understanding these thresholds it will assist stakeholders to respond to environmental threats before these thresholds have been reached or passed. The management approach being used is the thresholds of potential concern method.

This poster will be of interest to people working on arid zone rivers, indigenous engagement and methods to set environmental thresholds.