What do we know, and where does it lead us?

On the subject of monitoring (see above), how do you decide whether to continue with a project you’ve been working on?

Well, you probably check to see how successful you’ve been with your approach so far. On this, we offer the following two apparently contradictory findings of the report on the 2020 fire season by the Inspector General for Emergency Management (IGEM):

‘Finding 4.19 Forest Fire Management Victoria has established a strong foundation of monitoring, evaluation and research that has resulted in regular reporting against clear objectives.

‘Finding 4.21 The effectiveness of Victoria’s fuel management program cannot be comprehensively measured due to a lack of measurable objectives adopted by all land and fire agencies, gaps in the current tools and models used, and a lack of capacity and capability to support the requirements of this work across the sector.’

How do these two findings, which are printed on the same page, sit together? We’re not sure.