Thursday September 9th 1PM (AEST) Zoom Meeting ID: 8822 8757 7480 Password: 790662 https://jcu.zoom.us/j/82287577480 Abstract: This presentation reports on a journal paper being drafted that has been around 10 years in the making. I set out a long time ago to settle the arguments around protected areas being residual to extractive uses and therefore of limited value in … Continue reading Seminar: Protected areas as “worthless lands” 9 Sep 2021
A retrospective: what were the reasons for the success of the Great Barrier Reef rezoning?
The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) rezoning over the period 1999-2004 provides a valuable case study of effective environmental policy reform. Such real-world examples of policy reform at an ecosystem-wide scale are rare, and there were no precedents for this complex policy process. Nevertheless, a successful and transformative policy reform was achieved for the entire GBR, … Continue reading A retrospective: what were the reasons for the success of the Great Barrier Reef rezoning?
How recreational fishing can contribute to conservation of coastal ecosystems
An old fable tells of the five developmental stages an angler: 1, a young person with a budding interest in fishing just wants to catch a fish; 2, after having experienced catching fish, the angler seeks to catch many fish in an outing to achieve success; 3, having learned to catch many fish, the angler’s … Continue reading How recreational fishing can contribute to conservation of coastal ecosystems
New paper: Residual marine protected areas five years on: are we still favouring ease of establishment over need for protection?
Following his sabbatical year in our research group, Rodolphe Devillers (Canada) worked with us on a study of the distribution of marine protected areas in relation to fishing and oil and gas activities. This work, published in 2015, confirmed a tendency of MPAs to be ‘residual’, or created in places of low economic interest, often … Continue reading New paper: Residual marine protected areas five years on: are we still favouring ease of establishment over need for protection?
New paper: Integrating dynamic processes into waterfowl conservation prioritization tools
Conservation planning has typically used long-term averages to represent species’ distributions. However, this approach risks overlooking important spatial and temporal variation that might prove important for the persistence of populations. In our recently published paper in Diversity and Distributions, led by Kaylan Kemink, we assessed how much variability an averaged conservation tool might overlook if applied … Continue reading New paper: Integrating dynamic processes into waterfowl conservation prioritization tools
Investing against threats gives better conservation impact than prioritising with costs or representation
Increasingly, conservation scientists are recognising that achieving conservation impact, or avoiding loss that would otherwise have occurred, is a fundamental goal of planning. Many of our current conservation targets and techniques for achieving them are means to this end goal. But how effective are those means? In a recent paper, Ed Sacre showed that the … Continue reading Investing against threats gives better conservation impact than prioritising with costs or representation
The impact of terrestrial protected areas on vegetation extent and condition: a systematic review protocol
Protected areas (PAs) are one of the most important and globally applicable approaches to halt biodiversity loss. Since the campaign to expand PAs began at the World’s Park Congress in 1982, nations have strived to increase the extent of land under protection (see figure below). Calls to further increase the global PA estate have been … Continue reading The impact of terrestrial protected areas on vegetation extent and condition: a systematic review protocol
New paper: A global comparative analysis of impact evaluation methods in estimating the effectiveness of protected areas
In a new paper from PhD research by Luiz Ribas, we tried to answer the question: how do different methods of impact evaluation estimate the effectiveness of protected areas in avoiding deforestation? This study is a systematic review that searched for quantitative measurements of protected areas’ (PAs') effectiveness around the world. Until recently in ecology … Continue reading New paper: A global comparative analysis of impact evaluation methods in estimating the effectiveness of protected areas
New paper: Predicting and managing island invasions
Ecosystem invasion by non-native species represents one of the biggest threats to biodiversity. Non-native species management on offshore islands is especially challenging and resource demanding for conservation. Non-native plants increase the extinction risk of native plants and animal populations. Identifying ways of improving the cost-effectiveness of managing them is therefore critical for positive conservation outcomes. … Continue reading New paper: Predicting and managing island invasions