Communicating the results of a 15-year environmental monitoring program requires careful handling of data and messaging. Biotext worked with CSIRO to edit the final report on the Environmental Stewardship Program (ESP).
The ESP was established in 2007 to maintain and improve the quality and extent of targeted environmental assets on private land. The critically endangered Box Gum Grassy Woodland ecological community was the first target for the program. ESP sites were monitored throughout the 15-year program to assess the effectiveness of stewardship management actions.
Based on analysis of these data, CSIRO developed a final report to quantify the ecological benefit of actions and inform future conservation initiatives. Biotext worked with CSIRO to edit the 600-page report and develop plain-language summaries for government, landholders and environmental managers.
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The entire process from initial contact and quote to finalising the report went very smoothly, always time sensitive and to a very high standard for our project delivery to a federal government organisation. [Biotext’s] input into the overall management of this project and in particular the final executive summary was exceptional – translating complex science into a format suitable for the appropriate audience without losing the fine detail and specific nuance is a very difficult task that they achieved to a very high standard. They similarly provided very high-level copyediting of the primary text which was inundated with numerous figures, tables and ecology-specific science text.
Our role
- Content design and structure
- Technical writing and synthesis
- Copyediting and proofreading
- Work with subject matter experts
Our solution
In the development phase of the project, we worked with our client to create a layered structure for this technical report, to ensure messaging and data were clear.
Ecological monitoring and evaluation of the environmental condition of contracted sites was a key component of the ESP to assess the effectiveness of stewardship management actions. Biodiversity data were collected over the life of the project for vegetation components (species composition, vegetation structure, abundance and richness of the ground-, mid- and overstorey), avifauna (bird species and abundance) and herpetofauna (reptile and frog species and abundance). Data were also collected on abiotic components (soil nutrients and soil bulk density).
The final report presented the detailed data and analysis across all the components, bringing them together into a clear discussion and recommendations for the way forward. We edited the document over several iterations to ensure there was a clear line of sight from the data to the recommendations, and to make the content clear for both technical and government audiences.
We also wrote a high-level executive summary to capture and present key messages and conclusions for government and general audiences.
Outcomes
- Environmental Stewardship Program ecological monitoring and evaluation: final report to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water