"True" conservation progress

source: Wentworth Group of Scientists
"Hugh Possingham’s latest paper, “True” Conservation Progress, appearing in Science (Vol 323, 2 January 2009), explains that success in conserving biodiversity is best evaluated with a metric based on the concept of a conservation balance sheet."

Urbanisation of the cassowary: impacts and economics

source: Reef and Rainforest Research Centre
"The Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii or 'cassowary') is a significant keystone species to the natural environment of the Wet Tropics. The cassowary is a major and often sole disperser of seeds for over one hundred species of rainforest trees and vines (BioTropica Australia 2005). Because of the importance of the cassowary to the overall biodiversity of the Wet Tropics, research into the refining, tailoring and application of a market based instrument (MBI) to manage for environmental conservation in developing areas will use a viable cassowary population as the objective of any instrument mix analysed."

Market segmentation study of rural landholders in relation to the promotion of natural resource management on private land in the Wet Tropics region

Source: Reef and Rainforest Research Centre
"This report describes a series of community sector or group profiles with varying levels of interest and engagement in natural resource management (NRM) activities, based on responses to a survey of rural landholders in the Wet Tropics NRM region of far northern Queensland. Indices were developed to represent landholders' interest in and concern about NRM issues and to represent their level of engagement with (i.e. adoption of) currently recommended practices (CRPs)."

Border Ranges rainforest biodiversity management plan

Source: Dept. of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
"The Border Ranges Rainforest Biodiversity Management Plan constitutes the formal national regional recovery plan for threatened species and communities of the Border Ranges North and South (Queensland and New South Wales) Biodiversity Hotspot. The Plan considers the conservation requirements of rainforest and closely related species and communities in the Border Ranges region of NSW and Queensland, which is centred on the McPherson Ranges. It also addresses other species of conservation significance so as to manage the area’s biodiversity in a holistic and cost-effective manner."

Wildlife in a changing world: an analysis of the 2008 Red List

Source: IUCN
"Wildlife in a Changing World presents an analysis of the 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. Beginning with an explanation of the IUCN Red List as a key conservation tool, it goes on to discuss the state of the worlds species and provides the latest information on the patterns of species facing extinction in some of the most important ecosystems in the world, highlighting the reasons behind their declining status. Areas of focus in the report include: freshwater biodiversity, the status of the worlds marine species, species susceptibility to climate change impacts, the Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot, and broadening the coverage of biodiversity assessments."

Conservation and values: global cetacean summary report

source: Dept. of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
"The Global Cetacean Summary Report presents the most current information on the conservation status of the world’s cetaceans and includes new information from the 2008 meetings of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The report also highlights the main threats to their survival, and discusses the value of whale watching."

Draft national koala conservation and management strategy 2009-2014

source: Dept. of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
"The koala is an important part of Australia's natural and cultural heritage. The koala is suffering declines in some parts of Australia and management issues vary significantly from region to region. There is a clear need for a strategic approach to the conservation and management of koalas to maximise the effectiveness of conservation efforts. The first National Koala Conservation Strategy was released in 1998, aiming to conserve koalas by retaining viable populations in the wild throughout their natural range. This strategy is now being revised by the National Koala Conservation and Management Strategy Steering Committee on behalf of the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council. The Steering Committee has prepared a draft in consultation with a number of koala researchers and managers, in order to provide a basis for consultation with stakeholders and the general public."

Environmental views and behaviour 2007-08

Source: Aust. Bureau of Statistics
"This survey presents information on people's views and practices on environmental issues, for people aged 18 years and over. The data collected provides information on environmental concerns, personal energy and water use, waste collection and disposal and environmental involvement. Data from this survey are used to obtain a better understanding of the factors that influence people to participate in environmental activities and energy and water conservation practices."

Woodchipping our water

source: ACF
"This report, Woodchipping Our Water, assesses how the logging of mature forests in the Goulburn River catchment threatens the enormous water production and carbon
sequestration potential of the region. The Goulburn River is one of Australia’s most important and degraded river systems. It supplies water to many regional towns and cities, including Shepparton, Bendigo and Ballarat. The Goulburn also supports Victoria’s major irrigation industries and its flows are vital to the health of the Murray River system. The report finds that if logging in the study area stopped tomorrow, an additional water yield of 3,807 gigalitres would be delivered into the Goulburn River over the next 100 years. This is more than six times Melbourne’s annual average water use and around 165 times the amount of water the City of Bendigo uses in a single year. The economic value of this water would be $1.68 billion."

Assessing the social impacts of invasive animals in australia

Source: Invasive Animals CRC
"The case study of the Upper Hunter Valley in New South Wales set out to identify, understand, and possibly quantify the social impacts of invasive animals in an area with a typical range of land uses. We found that in the Upper Hunter region, wild dogs, foxes, feral pigs and rabbits, and to a lesser extent, feral goats and carp are seen as the main pest animals. In practice, only wild dogs, foxes and feral pigs currently seem to be causing concern for local landowners and resource managers. For the most part, the effects of pest animals in the Upper Hunter region are economic and environmental. Such effects include stock and pasture loss, biodiversity loss and vehicle accidents involving invasive animals. Most of the social impacts of pest animals in this region therefore seem to flow out of the economic and environmental impacts."

Forests NSW Riverina environmental impact statement

Source: NSW DPI
"An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Forests NSW’s operations in the state’s south-west has found there is unlikely to be a significant impact on most threatened species, or endangered ecological communities or their habitats. The EIS assesses Forests NSW’s timber harvesting and associated road works in south-western NSW, an area that includes both red gum forests and white cypress forests. The assessment considers matters associated with timber harvesting and related roadworks such as sustainable timber supply, flora and fauna, air quality, noise, cultural heritage, water quality, traffic and transport, and socioeconomic impacts. However, the EIS has been met with criticism by the National Parks Association of NSW, with spokesperson, Georgina Woods, saying the EIS “has utterly failed to provide a proper assessment of the environmental impacts of logging”. The National Parks Association says the EIS fails to address the impact of logging on nationally significant wetlands, and undertakes almost no surveys for threatened species."

Australia's strategy for the national reserve system 2009-2030

Source: Dept. of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
"The next 20 years will be a critical period for biodiversity conservation in Australia. The release of the National Reserve System Strategy 2009-2030 is an important step towards long-term protection of Australia's biodiversity. The strategy will fully guide the work on the National Reserve System in the years ahead. Each state and territory will now prepare a five-year plan to implement the strategy. These plans will support the strategy and reflect the regional differences in conserving biodiversity across the landscape and the conservation challenges they pose. Australia's National Reserve System is the cornerstone to protecting our country's biodiversity - it is our nation's most secure way of protecting native habitat."

East marine bioregional plan bioregional profile

source: Dept. of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
"This East Marine Bioregional Profile brings together, for the first time, the best available information for the East Marine Region. It consolidates our knowledge of the spectacular and varied features of the Coral and Tasman Seas, from Cape York Peninsula to southern New South Wales and stretching hundreds of kilometres from shore to include Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands."

Saving the honeybee

Source: Scientific American, vol.300,no.4 (April 2009)
"The mysterious ailment called colony collapse has wiped out large numbers of the bees that pollinate a third of America’s crops. The causes turn out to be surprisingly complex, but solutions are emerging."

Management principles and strategies to guide biodiversity conservation in private native forests

Source: RIRDC
"This report outlines a series of ecological principles for guidance on how forestry on private land might best achieve biodiversity conservation. A checklist of on-ground management strategies aimed at operationalising these principles is described. A discussion of the meaning of ecologically sustainable forest management, together with an outline of problems associated with biodiversity conservation “short-cuts” is given to provide suitable context to the description of the principles and associated checklist. The focus of this paper is on existing areas of native forest rather than exotic plantations (including eucalypt plantations) or farm forests that have been established on former grazing lands."

Littoral rainforest and coastal vine thickets of eastern Australia

source: Dept. of the Environment, Water, Hertitage & the Arts
"This brochure is designed to assist land managers, owners and occupiers to identify, assess and manage the Littoral Rainforest and Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia, an ecological community listed under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). The brochure is a companion document for the listing advice which can be found at the Australian Government’s species profile and threats database (SPRAT)."

The third wave

Source: The monthly, no.44 (April, 2009)
Article by Tim Flannery: "If the Australian government was at all serious about climate-change mitigation, it would be pumping millions of dollars into surveys and captive-breeding programs for the most critically endangered species. Instead, we see business as usual: mouthed concern, but no meaningful action to deal with the consequences of our coal burning. Without doubt, climate change is only one factor at work, but no one can gainsay that it's a deadly serious one, with computer models indicating that we face losing three out of five species on Earth to global warming if the worst-case scenario eventuates."

Promoting persuasian in protected areas:

Source: CRC Sustainable Tourism
"The purpose of Promoting Persuasion in Protected Areas is to help protected area managers make better decisions and to achieve greater success in their use of communication to influence visitor behaviour. Many managers, and some tourism operators, see this as an important part of their job. While others can learn and apply the approach outlined in this manual, and while the methods can be adapted for influencing many different kinds of behaviours, this manual is written for protected area managers who want to influence the behaviour of people who visit their sites."

Bringing molecular tools into environmental resource management

Source: PLoS Biology, vol.7 (3) March 2009
"We believe that scientists and resource managers charged with implementing environmental policy can develop meaningful dialogues to navigate and in some cases streamline this complex “science to policy” pathway. As a model for this pathway, we focus on molecular biology because it presents new techniques that might improve management of environmental resources. However, adopting them would require a wide range of changes in management protocols and policy, as well as data interpretation and database management."

The growth of easements as a conservation tool

Source: PLoS ONE, vol.4(3) March 2009
"The numerous studies examining where efforts to conserve biodiversity should be targeted are not matched by comparable research efforts addressing how conservation investments should be structured and what balance of conservation approaches works best in what contexts. An obvious starting point is to examine the past allocation of effort among conservation approaches and how this has evolved."