Although positive developments in resourcing, evidence-based policy-making and management effectiveness are evident, ongoing improvements depend heavily on the quality and overall capacity of the human resources, networks and infrastructure involved in land planning and management.

In Australia, heritage is defined by both statutory and nonstatutory listing processes, which result in inventories and areas of reserved lands.

Biodiversity is important to humans for many reasons. Biodiversity is also considered by many to have intrinsic value—that is, each species has a value and a right to exist, whether or not it is known to have value to humans.

This report provides an account of the most significant and recent human impacts on our land.

Population and economic growth also drive consumption, causing increased demand for resources, particularly land (see Increased urban footprint), energy and water.

Production and consumption activities occurring in our built environments often lead to increased pollution in our built and natural environments.

Traffic is greatly affected by pressures from population and economic growth, unless there is a significant decline in car use per person. Any associated traffic increase is, in turn, its own pressure on urban amenity and livability.

Human activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuels during the past 250 years, has caused well-quantified increases in the concentrations of GHGs in the atmosphere (Figure ATM1).

SoE 2011 (SoE Committee 2011) recognised that the connection between people and Country is a fundamental aspect of Indigenous cultural heritage.

If not effectively controlled, emissions from industry can place health and amenity at risk, not only at the neighbourhood level, but more generally at the airshed level.

The past 5 years opened with widespread heavy rainfall and extensive flooding in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, and closed with some areas having record-breaking temperatures from October to December 2015.

In the absence of comprehensive programs for monitoring the state of Australia’s heritage, inputs provide a surrogate basis for evaluating some aspects of management effectiveness. Relevant inputs include financial and human resources, and investment in applied research.

Few of the pressures documented in this section occur in isolation. Rather, pressures interact in complex ways, often compounding the threat to biodiversity.

Each state and territory in Australia has highlighted a range of key pressures in their jurisdictional reporting.