Supporting biodiversity conservation policy and practice to ensure long-term, holistic biodiversity outcomes.
This expertise area employs a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods for the study of biodiversity conservation policy and practice. Examples of our work in this area include:
- biodiversity conservation planning
- management of protected areas
- private land conservation and landholder engagement in biodiversity offsetting
- landholder engagement in wildlife-friendly farming
- peri-urban and inner urban greening – enhancing habitat connectivity within and across local government areas
- monetary evaluation, cost-benefit analysis, ecosystem services valuation approaches, and participatory evaluations.
Our valuation and evaluation methods range from quantitative monetisation (for use in whole-of-society cost-benefit analysis etc), to qualitative participatory methods such as citizens’ juries, and social evaluations in small group settings.
Broader frameworks for diagnosis, analysis and scenario evaluation include ecosystem services ‘cascade’ models; natural capital accounting; meaning/place-making and political analysis approaches, and spatial characterisations (tree mapping, remote sensing).
PROJECT | 2019-2020
Landholder participation in biodiversity offsetting
This project sought to discover how landholders in Western Sydney perceived and engaged with the NSW Biodiversity Offsets Scheme.
PROJECT | 2018-2021
Strategic biodiversity conservation planning in New South Wales: economic appraisal of the Cumberland Plain Conservation Plan
Analysing the value and viability of proposed conservation measures in Western Sydney.
PROJECT | 2016-2019
Towards a climate change adaptation strategy for national parks
A series of intensive workshops with National Parks and Wildlife Services staff informed the organisation’s strategy for adapting to the impacts of climate change, and mapped out an approach to encouraging a range stakeholders to engage with it.
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PROJECT | 2014-2015
Natural Asset Valuation at Local Government Level
Many Australian local governments are custodians of extensive natural assets bases. These assets, through the many ecosystem services that flow from them, underpin the local economy, local communities and the regional identity. Blue Mountains City Council (BMCC) went beyond legislative planning requirements by attempting to manage all its assets – both built and natural – according to a natural assets model.
ISF was asked to conduct an independent, external academic peer review of BMCC’s natural assets valuation model. The review was undertaken with a view to benchmark the model against current theory and Australian and world best practice.
Location: Blue Mountains
Client: Blue Mountains City Council
Researchers: Roel Plant, Joanne Chong, Jade Herriman
PROJECT | 2009-2011
Resilience for pesticide management in NSW rivers
This project, undertaken by researchers from various UTS faculties, gave recommendations for policy reform after an initial study revealed weaknesses in the control of pollution from chemicals used in per-urban agriculture.
The research considered chemicalisation a cause of the erosion of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem resilience, focusing on the Hawkesbury-Nepean River and the small-scale horticulturalists who supply Sydney’s vegetable markets.
Interviews were conducted with representatives from institutions responsible for agriculture, water quality, and environmental protection, to assess the effectiveness of pesticide governance in the Greater Sydney Basin. Pesticide pollution was found to be far from being ‘tamed’: it was rarely measured nor monitored, neither was it a priority of any particular agency. Public health, the long-term viability of local farming and the ecological wellbeing of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River are mutually consistent goals, hence the researchers’ recommendation to bring these vital elements together to eliminate the current system of ‘organised irresponsibility’.
Location: Western Sydney
Client: UTS-internal funding (Challenge Grant)
Partners: UTS:FASS, UTS:DAB, UTS:Science
Researcher: Roel Plant
RESEARCH OUTPUTS
The Wild Life of Pesticides: Urban Agriculture, Institutional Responsibility, and the Future of Biodiversity in Sydney’s Hawkesbury-Nepean River (2012)
Australian Geographer, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 75-91.
