Natural resources and ecosystems

Harvesting in state forests supplying water to Melbourne - Sustainability Assessment Methodology: Peer Review Panel
Department of Sustainability and Environment (Vic)
Professor Stuart White and Dr Roel Plant have been providing expert advice to the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) to assist with the evaluation of a proposed sustainability methodology for the harvesting of water from State forests in Victoria. Stuart was the nominated Peer Review Panel member, Roel was Stuart's delegate.

Ecosystem Services and NRM Practice: Where the Rubber Hits the Road
Land and Water Australia
Natural ecosystems and biodiversity provide many services that benefit humans. These include the production of food and water, the decomposition of wastes, the regulation of climate and disease, and support for nutrient cycles and crop pollination. As increasing resource demands are imposed on increasingly fragile ecosystems, the services they provide can no longer be seen as free, invulnerable and infinitely available. Recognising Ecosystem Services (ES) has the potential to change the way natural resources are managed by informing decision makers of key trade-offs as well as the true costs and benefits involved. Land & Water Australia (LWA) has commissioned ISF to investigate how Australian Natural Resource Managers have used the Ecosystem Services concept in practice. The thinking behind the ES concept is all about reconnecting economic systems with their ecological roots. The concept emerged in the United States fifteen years ago and was picked up in Australia in the late 1990s, when the CSIRO embarked on Australia’s first national ES project. Yet, practical applications in Australian Natural Resource Management (NRM) have been slow to emerge. With the ES concept currently regaining momentum in Europe and the United States, ISF has identified an opportunity revisit the ES concept and investigate its uptake among Australian NRM practitioners, with funding kindly provided by Land & Water Australia. A recent review of the academic literature on ES in the context of Australian ecosystems, biodiversity and NRM undertaken by ISF suggests a sharp increase over the past four years in the number of articles that address the ES concept. However, few articles actually go beyond using the term as a sales piece, and those which do mostly focus on economic valuation of specific, or bundled, services without much consideration for the practical challenges faced by NRM practitioners. Although robust ES science is a critical factor in successfully mainstreaming the ES concept, an understanding of practitioners’ needs and experiences so far is equally important. This project, led by ISF’s Dr Roel Plant, was undertaken in three stages. First, an Australia-wide non-academic literature review was conducted. The second stage consisted of semi-structured face to face interviews with seven Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs) in New South Wales and Victoria. The project considered three catchment clusters in more detail, based on their degree of exposure to the ES concept so far. Results were presented at an Ecosystem Services workshop, held in Canberra on March 13th, 2009, organised by Land & Water Australia. Results shared in this meeting showed that thinking about natural resources as providing economic value has broadly found its way into NRM practice. However, some CMAs regard the ES concept to be of some use but out-of-date, others would like to engage more with ES thinking but lack the incentives and tools to do so.

Plant, R.A. 2009, 'Ecosystem services and NRM practice: where the rubber hits the road', Land & Water Australia Ecosystem Services Workshop, March 2009. View/Download paper (PDF 824.56KB)

Visit LWA's website (opens an external site) to access other resources from this ISF project.

THINKK Kangaroo Think Tank
THINKK is an innovative think tank that has been established to undertake independent research on kangaroos in Australia. It has been established by the University of Technology, Sydney and is based at the Institute for Sustainable Futures. The think tank is supported by a generous donation from the Sherman Foundation. THINKK aims to integrate science and policy, and assess the key processes affecting law and policy relating to kangaroos. The mission of THINKK is to foster understanding amongst Australians about kangaroos in a sustainable landscape, through critically reviewing current kangaroo management practices and exploring non-lethal management methods that are consistent with ecology, animal welfare, human health and ethics. The think tank is governed by a Research Advisory Committee comprising macropod experts, Dr Dror Ben-Ami and Dr Daniel Ramp, ISF sustainability expert, Professor Stuart White and ISF animal and environmental law expert Keely Boom. ISF sustainability expert Louise Boronyak is THINKK’s project manager. Expert advisors, macropod expert Dr David Croft and pioneering animal welfare expert Christine Townend, inform and refine THINKK’s research priorities and content. The key outcomes from this research are: 1) to conduct research and write papers for the web site and peer reviewed journals, 2) the creation of the THINKK web site to disseminate information, research and publications, 3) engage with stakeholders through networking, collaboration, workshops and other events, and 4) develop a fundraising strategy and actively engage in fundraising to sustain the Think Tank and its research. This ground breaking think tank brings a number of key stakeholders together to discuss the big picture of a sustainable future for kangaroos.