When it comes to species being vulnerable to climate change, many people think of polar bears – or other species that are highly specialised to local conditions. A lot of research has been done, for example, on mountain top endemics – species reliant on cool, misty mountains that could lose that habitat with rising temperatures. … Continue reading Are Australian tropical savanna birds vulnerable to climate change?
Australian Government Plans to reduce Environmental Protection to Instead Protect Coal Mines
It's difficult to concentrate on my research into priorities for species conservation under climate change when weakening of Australia's environmental protection laws are being proposed. The Australian government has put forward proposed changes to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999 that prevent environment groups from challenging development projects that breach the Act. … Continue reading Australian Government Plans to reduce Environmental Protection to Instead Protect Coal Mines
Integrated cross-realm planning: a decision-makers’ perspective
A new paper on integrated cross-realm planning, led by Jorge G. Álvarez-Romero and other members of the Conservation Planning Group, is now online in Biological Conservation. We followed a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to examine the foundations, current approaches, and key requirements of cross-realm planning. Over three workshops, our team of authors included people with … Continue reading Integrated cross-realm planning: a decision-makers’ perspective
Studying collaboration networks in the Fitzroy River catchment
An ongoing study by researchers of the Conservation Planning Group can help organisations involved in natural resource management (NRM) in the Fitzroy River catchment to better understand how they collaborate with one another. Funded by the Northern Australia Hub of the National Environmental Research Program (NERP), researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral … Continue reading Studying collaboration networks in the Fitzroy River catchment
The Barrier Reef is not listed as in danger, but the threats remain
UNESCO and IUCN have just released a draft decision for the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The decision proposes not to list the GBR “In danger” as many expected. However, given the many threats that still face the GBR, this article suggests several aspects of the decision that need to be stronger to maintain the World Heritage values. Jon Day from the ARC Centre for Coral … Continue reading The Barrier Reef is not listed as in danger, but the threats remain
Science can influence policy and benefit the public – here’s how
As conservation scientists, the ultimate goal in our work is to contribute to onground conservation in some way; whether it be through improving the evidence base for the conservation decisions, bringing attention to poorly known issues, or finding the best way of tackling a conservation problem. My first postdoc - fresh out of my PhD … Continue reading Science can influence policy and benefit the public – here’s how
ARC Centre of Excellence’s Virginia Chadwick Award
Georgina Gurney recently received a Virginia Chadwick Award for her paper on how marine protected areas (MPAs) affect human wellbeing, which is published in Global Environmental Change. The Virginia Chadwick Awards are awarded each year to five ARC Centre of Excellence graduate students for the most outstanding publications in peer-reviewed international journals. Georgina’s paper examined … Continue reading ARC Centre of Excellence’s Virginia Chadwick Award
NEW PAPER: A decision framework for prioritizing multiple management actions for threatened marine megafauna
Resources for conserving biodiversity are invariably insufficient. This situation creates the need for transparent, systematic frameworks to help stakeholders prioritize the allocation of resources across multiple management actions. Together with other members (Bob Pressey and Piero Visconti) from The Conservation Planning Group, various stakeholders (Cape York Sustainable Futures, Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, … Continue reading NEW PAPER: A decision framework for prioritizing multiple management actions for threatened marine megafauna
New Paper: Incorporating climate change refugia into conservation planning
Refugia have been places that species have survived through harsh climate change in the past, so are believed to be important for species survival into the future with the impending, projected changes. In a previous postdoc (funded by NCCARF), I, April, looked at refugia across Australia for terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity. This work has been … Continue reading New Paper: Incorporating climate change refugia into conservation planning