A letter signed by eight leading ecologists, all members of the Australian Academy of Science, has expressed concern that there is a lack of scientific input to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s  (MDBA) water plan.

 

According to an ABC report,  signatories to the letter, which was sent to the Water Minister, Tony Burke, and to the MDBA,  doubt the scientific underpinning  for the revised basin plan.

 

One of the group, Professor Mark Burgman of the University of Melbourne,  said in an interview with the ABC that while the original report was based on good science, he had heard that the forthcoming plan, expected to be released at the end of the month, will not be subject to peer review.

 

MDBA Chairman, Craig Knowles,  has rejected the scientists’ claims, saying the work has been “heavily based on science”, and has been continually subject to peer-review processes.

 

Mr Knowles said that Authority was moving to an ‘adaptive management’ approach so that as new information became available it would be incorporated into new methods of managing the river system for its environmental, social and economic values.