Information, Sustainability and Policy

This article considers three imperatives from sustainability (sustainable development): pervasive uncertainty; the need for better information; and policy choice. The focus of the article is Australian, and the scale is national. While decisions must always be made on the basis of far-from- perfect knowledge, profound changes are demanded now in our efforts to inform ecological aspects of the sustainability problem. If not, we will be unable to design and implement effective policies, and further will be unable to assess whether our policies are working. Examples are noted, and the broad shape of the required changes outlined. These changes include: better institutional and policy abilities to handle uncertainty; redoubled efforts and greater independence and permanence in basic environmental monitoring; more continuity in policy settings; more sophisticated policy instrument choice; and stronger linkages between policy and. information via policy monitoring.