Conservation and Biodiversity

document Regional Planning in Queensland’s Rangelands: Challenges and Prospects for Biodiversity Conservation
In Australia, the Commonwealth and State governments are increasingly devolving natural resource management (NRM) responsibilities to regional bodies. This move has led to the development of regional NRM plans. Native vegetation and biodiversity conservation, along with soil, pasture and water resources, are key components of the regional NRM plans in Queensland’s extensive rangelands. This paper outlines and applies a set of criteria for evaluating the native vegetation and biodiversity content of accredited regional NRM plans for Queensland’s rangelands. The evaluation showed considerable variation in the comprehensiveness of the information and knowledge base and management action targets among plans, including the poor articulation of impacts of excessive grazing pressure on biodiversity. The NRM plans lacked effective integration of natural resource, native vegetation and biodiversity conservation targets and actions. Several regions had too many biodiversity targets, many of which were poorly integrated. This is symptomatic of a limited understanding of rangelands as ecological systems and the lack of an integrated planning framework. We conclude regional NRM planning is not a ‘silver bullet’ for biodiversity conservation in the rangelands, but rather, it is the beginning of a long road to address complex, multi-scale problems at a regional level. [pdf 774.5 kb]

document Interpreting and Correcting Cross-scale Mismatches in Resilience Analysis: a Procedure and Examples from Australia’s Rangelands
Many rangelands around the globe are degraded because of mismatches between the goals and actions of managers operating at different spatial scales. In this paper, we focus on identifying, interpreting, and correcting cross-scale mismatches in rangeland management by building on an existing four-step resilience analysis procedure. Resilience analysis is an evaluation of the capacity of a system to persist in the face of disturbances. We provide three examples of cross-scale resilience analysis using a rangeland system located in northern Australia. The system was summarized in a diagram showing key interactions between three attributes (water quality, regional biodiversity, and beef quality), which can be used to indicate the degree of resilience of the system, and other components that affect these attributes at different scales. The strengths of cross-scale interactions were rated as strong or weak, and the likely causes of mismatches in strength were interpreted. Possible actions to correct cross-scale mismatches were suggested and evaluated. We found this four-step, cross-scale resilience analysis procedure very helpful because it reduced a complex problem down to manageable parts without losing sight of the larger-scale whole. To build rangeland resilience, many such cross-scale mismatches in management will need to be corrected, especially as the global use of rangelands increases over the coming decades. [pdf 37.8 kb]

document Seeking Mechanisms for Improved·lntegration of Biodiversity Issues in Regional Natural Resource Management Planning
This article reviews the literature on natural resource management (NRM) planning in Australia, with particular consideration given to exploring how regions might better integrate biodiversity conservation into catchment or regional planning in ways that lead to improved biodiversity conservation practice in the field. Many of the findings of the review are generic, affecting a range of NRM issues (including biodiversity conservation) and the NRM planning process itself, whilst other findings are specific to conservation of biodiversity. Factors affecting the integration ofbiodiversity include the organisational characteristics of the regional NRM body, clarity in the region ofthe responsibilities across the three tiers ofgovernment, effective participation of stakeholders, existence of detailed NRM plans that include sound biodiversity data and management principles, access to interpreted information, use of a mix ofpolicy instruments capable of delivering biodiversity goals, and effective monitoring frameworks and tools to track the return on investment. There is considerable variability in· the ways that NRM planning is practised across Australia, at the enterprise, regional or catchment levels. However, an overarching issue is how well the planning caters for differences across space, time and human values and this article attempts to identify the considerations that impact on that requirement. [pdf 1.8 Mb]

document Dispossession, degradation and extinction: environmental history in arid Australia
Among the most popular media images of Australia are the outback heroes: the explorer, pioneer and pastoralist. However, there is insufficient attention paid to the role that pastoralists and their management strategies have played in the dispossession and degradation of arid Australia. A historical overview of ecology and land management suggests that the fragility of Australia’s arid ecosystems was identified over 100 years ago, and despite repeated calls for reform, effective regional management schemes are still vehemently opposed by pastoralists. I argue that, until the role played by pastoralists and their management strategies in the degradation of arid Australia has been adequately communicated, pastoralists will remain a powerful political lobby capable of thwarting the implementation of sustainable land management practises. [pdf 81.2 kb]

document Integrating Grazing & Biodiversity Conservation in Australia's Arid Rangelands
This article by Jill Landsberg, Craig James and Stephen Morton, who are scientists with the CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology, is based on one that appeared in the Range Management Newsletter, July 1995. These scientists have found that some of the problems besetting our native animals and plants and threatening natural biodiversity are also causing problems in the pastoral industry which is trying to cope with degraded rangeland pastures. [pdf 608.8 kb]

document Biodiversity monitoring in the rangelands: a way forward - volume 2
By Leigh Hunt, Alaric Fisher, Alex Kutt and Terry Mazzer. Written 2003. [pdf 790.6 kb]

document An alternative understanding of the relationship between the ecosystem and the social system - implications for land management in semi-arid Australia
The growing concerns of the wider community for bio-diversity, ecological maintenance and sustainable long term productivity of Australia's rangelands has focussed attention on land management practices in the semi-arid and arid areas. Where conventional farming paradigms concentrated on farming practices and methods, the paradigms of sustainability rest heavily on changes to farming philosophy for their success. The basic challenges have been well understood for years, and almost all the research has gone into the process of understanding the resource. There is little understanding of the relationship between the ecosystem and either society in general, or the local community. The basic relationship, that between society and the ecosystem, is being overlooked. The social system determines human objectives and the ecosystem presents a range of possibilities through which these objectives are to be realised. Using the work of Ingold, it is argued that technology, ideology and structure are the products of the relationship between society and the ecosystem. The interaction between the ecosystem and the social system then presents a set of possible outcomes that culture atteinpts to solve. There is a need to shift attention from technology and ideology to examining and understanding the relationship between the social system and the ecosystem if the desired changes, such as the maintenance of biodiversity or sustainability, are to be more than superficial. [pdf 730.1 kb]

document Conservation through buyer-diversity: A key role for not-for-profit land-holding organizations in Australia
‘Not-for-profit’ nature conservation organizations in Australia are a relatively new and growing phenomenon. Key players discuss the progress of these groups in securing ‘in perpetuity’ conservation on private land. [pdf 661.1 kb]

document Mapping of species richness for conservation of biological diversity: conceptual and methodological issues
Biodiversity mapping (e.g., the Gap Analysis Program [GAP]), in which vegetative features and categories of land use are mapped at coarse spatial scales, has been proposed as a reliable tool for land use decisions (e.g., reserve identification, selection, and design). This implicitly assumes that species richness data collected at coarse spatiotemporal scales provide a first-order approximation to community and ecosystem representation and persistence. This assumption may be false because (1) species abundance distributions and species richness are poor surrogates for community/ecosystem processes, and are scale dependent; (2) species abundance and richness data are unreliable because of unequal and unknown sampling probabilities and species-habitat models of doubtful reliability; (3) mapped species richness data may be inherently resistant to "e;scaling up"e; or "e;scaling down"e;; and (4) decision-making based on mapped species richness patterns may be sensitive to errors from unreliable data and models, resulting in suboptimal conservation decisions. We suggest an approach in which mapped data are linked to management via demographic models, multiscale sampling, and decision theory. We use a numerical representation of a system in which vegetation data are assumed to be known and mapped without error, a simple model relating habitat to predicted species persistence, and statistical decision theory to illustrate use of mapped data in conservation decision-making and the impacts of uncertainty in data or models on the decision outcome. [pdf 464.2 kb]

document Setting and achieving objectives for conserving biological diversity in arid environments
With conservation of biological diversity depending as much on socioeconomic as on biological processes, this paper stresses the importance of clear policy objectives to guide strategies for preserving biological diversity. The first requirement is to define the essential elements and socioeconomic importance of biological diversity, so that these can be accommodated adequately in a national programme for sustainable rural development. Efficient application of this programme requires that its goals be clearly enunciated in national policy. There should also be maximum political support for its effective sociopolitically, economically and ecologically rationalised implementation by an accountable authority through a conducive institutional framework. Experience suggests that proprietorship and price are prime elements that need to be reconciled in such a framework of positive and negative incentives to individuals, to mitigate the opportunity costs and encourage the conservation of biodiversity. The present paper considers how these institutional requirements may be met, with particular reference to the special characteristics found in arid areas. [pdf 76.5 kb]

document Impacts of salinity on biodiversity - clear understanding or muddy confusion?
A report written for the Australian Journal of Botany 51 by Sue V. Briggs and Nicki Taws. [pdf 409.8 kb]

document Biodiversity and Landscape
Biodiversity and landscape pattern and process are inextricably linked. Maximum biodiversity occurs where landscape patterns and processes are most heterogeneous. Human use of landscapes in Australia and New Zealand has changed biodiversity patterns. European settlement introduced many species from Europe, America, Africa and Asia to the landscapes of Australia and New Zealand. These species have caused a decline in native biodiversity of much greater significance than their addition to the biodiversity. Future landscape management should seek to maintain maximum landscape heterogeneity, thereby ensuring the maximum persistence of biodiversity. [pdf 610.8 kb]

document Water Points: Where Pastoralism and Biodiversity Meet
A 1997 booklet written by Bryony Bennet. [pdf 1.1 Mb]

document Managing ecosystem services: what do we need to know about their ecology?
Human domination of the biosphere has greatly altered ecosystems, often overwhelming their capacity to provide ecosystem services critical to our survival. Yet ecological understanding of ecosystem services is quite limited. Previous work maps the supply and demand for services, assesses threats to them, and estimates economic values, but does not measure the underlying role of biodiversity in providing services. In contrast, experimental studies of biodiversity–function examine communities whose structures often differ markedly from those providing services in real landscapes. A bridge is needed between these two approaches. To develop this research agenda, I discuss critical questions and key approaches in four areas: (1) identifying the important ecosystem service providers; (2) determining the various aspects of community structure that influence function in real landscapes, especially compensatory community responses that stabilize function, or non-random extinction sequences that rapidly erode it; (3) assessing key environmental factors influencing provision of services, and (4) measuring the spatio-temporal scale over which providers and services operate. I show how this research agenda can assist in developing environmental policy and natural resource management plans. [pdf 185.5 kb]

document Refugia for Biological Diversity in Arid & Semi-Arid Australia 2
An excerpt from the fourth report in the Biodiversity Series produced by the Department of the Environment, Sport and Territories. The series intends to provide information about aspects of Australia's considerable biodiversity, including its global and national significance, and its conservation and management status. Many of the papers iri the Series will consist of reports prepared for the Biodiversity Unit on a range of biodiversity related subjects. This excerpt is the section of the report focusing on the mulga lands. [pdf 326.7 kb]

document Refugia for Biological Diversity in Arid & Semi-Arid Australia 1
An excerpt from the fourth report in the Biodiversity Series produced by the Department of the Environment, Sport and Territories. The series intends to provide information about aspects of Australia's considerable biodiversity, including its global and national significance, and its conservation and management status. Many of the papers iri the Series will consist of reports prepared for the Biodiversity Unit on a range of biodiversity related subjects. This excerpt is the introduction to the report. [pdf 414.7 kb]

document Concepts for Private Sector Funded Conservation Using Tax-Effective Instruments
This study is intended to outline a conceptual model for the use of taxation to markedly improve the flow of funds to conservation. Its particular focus is the use of private funds to ensure conservation of high value environments on private lands, through the marriage of taxation arrangements with eco-service markets and regional management of conservation programs by landowner or community led conservation organisations. [pdf 492.0 kb]

document Environmental Performance of Agriculture in OECD Countries Since 1990: Australia Country Section
This country section is an extract from chapter 3 of the OECD publication (2008) Environmental Performance of Agriculture in OECD countries since 1990, which is available at the OECD website indicated within. [pdf 261.4 kb]

document Pacific Conservation Biology
A copy of an article from Pacific Conservation Biology, Volume 8, Number 2, written by A.J. Franks, on the topic of the ecological consequences resulting from Buffel grass establishing itself in areas of remnant vegetation in Queensland. [pdf 2.2 Mb]

document NATURE CONSERVATION IN THE MULGA LANDS
NATURE CONSERVATION IN THE MULGA LANDS Address to South West NRM Ltd – 22.3.2007 Paul Sattler OAM paulsattler@bigpond.com [pdf 526.6 kb]

Regional Profiles of the Lake Eyre Basin
http://www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au/research/downloads/DKCRC-Regional-profiles-of-the-Lake-Eyre-Basin.pdf