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Summary: This paper provides a critical analysis of the development and current outcomes of Australia's first endorsed strategic assessment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, namely, the Melbourne Strategic Assessment. It covers progress towards protection of a number of Nationally Significant Species and Ecological Communities – most notably, the native grassland communities immediately adjacent to Melbourne's Urban Growth Boundary. The Commonwealth approval to protect biodiversity and allow urban development was made in 2010 and it aimed to achieve its outcomes by 2020. These outcomes included providing new land for homes, for new transport corridors, and for conservation of biodiversity. Natural Temperate Grassland (4,667 ha), Grassy Eucalypt Woodland (709 ha) and seven other Matters of National Environmental Significance will be impacted. Mitigation for this is establishment of 15,000 ha of grassland reserves, 1,200 ha of grassy woodland reserves, over 4,000 ha of other land zoned for conservation and 300 ha of wetland restoration. We conclude that the Melbourne Strategic Assessment has been a success in terms of the elegance and comprehensiveness of the approach, in cooperation between the levels of government, in the economic benefits, and in some aspects of social engagement of the agreement. However, the achievement of environmental outcomes must be currently considered a failure due to poor implementation. This failure includes not meeting the agreed 10 year deadline for land acquisition and management, poor monitoring and protection of set‐aside areas, and in reporting. We offer suggestions for how these current shortcomings could be overcome. These align well with the recommendations of the review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (The independent statutory review of the Act in 2020) and include the establishment of the proposed Office of Compliance and Enforcement, the adoption of National Environmental Standards and the reforms regarding the role of Indigenous Australians in strategic assessments. If these were adopted, we conclude that the strategic assessment approach should be more widely used because of the more holistic approach and efficiencies that it envisages compared with site by site approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic and biochemical resources have the ability to provide considerable economic, social and environmental benefits to a nation. Traditional knowledge of these natural resources is extensive. Biopiracy occurs when commercial actors appropriate traditional knowledge without recognition or benefit‐sharing. It has faced international condemnation. The importance of acknowledging traditional knowledge and ensuring benefit‐sharing from inventions based on this knowledge is recognized. This paper explores strategies for protection of traditional knowledge and considers the adequacy of Australia's approach. It discusses the global problem of biopiracy and Australia's international obligations. It explores Australia's current protection, including part 8A of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations ( ) (Cth). This paper then compares Australia's strategy to the protections afforded in the United States, New Zealand and Brazil. It is argued that an additional disclosure of origin and source requirement within the Australian Patents Act (Cth) would assist in better protection of traditional knowledge and the promotion of benefit‐sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the lack of adequate economic evidence, water pollution from economic activities in Great Barrier Reef (GBR) catchments is often regarded excessive. In this paper marginal benefits from terrestrial (agricultural) water pollution and associated marginal marine costs from GBR degradation are estimated and used in an optimal control approach to determine optimal levels of water quality. Results, for a case study in the Wet Tropics in Australia, show that locally optimal levels of (fine sediment) water pollution are close to current levels, indicating that increased rates of (agricultural) water pollution lead to a decrease in local economic welfare. Globally optimal levels of water pollution are, however, below current levels, indicating that (inter-) national compensation for beneficial spillovers from reduced GBR degradation can increase global economic welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastcare, Australia's community-based coastal stewardship program, ran in its original form between 1995 and 2002 underpinned by the principles of integrated coastal management. Internationally, there are very few similar enterprises. Coastcare differed in fundamental ways from other Australian natural resource stewardship programs such as Landcare and Bushcare. However, there is very little published information about the program: its activities, characteristics or achievements. The results presented in this paper are based upon analysis of descriptive statistics from two key sources: the data set of the central coordinating agency for Coastcare (the national environment agency of that time), and a questionnaire administered to State level staff of the program. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the original program including a discussion of its practice, outcomes and limitations in terms of lack of formal evaluation. The paper expands the image of Coastcare beyond that of a grants program by explaining its broader roles in terms of education and partnership development between tiers of government and the community. Coastcare, in its original form, ceased to function in 2003 as a consequence of a remodeling of the funding strategy through the Commonwealth Government's Natural Heritage Trust. It is concluded that there is some urgency in broadcasting Coastcare's past function and fate because a new program has emerged from the old with little application of hindsight to guide better future performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses a rationale for a positive relationship between the military and the environment. Holistic interpretation of military corporate goals; Military's traditional contribution to society; Contributions of the Australian military to sustainable development.

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Global climate change is the major and most urgent global environmental issue. Australia is already experiencing climate change as evidenced by higher temperatures and more frequent and severe droughts. These impacts are compounded by increasing land use pressures on natural resources and native ecosystems. This paper provides a synthesis of the interactions, feedbacks and risks of natural climate variability, climate change and land use/land cover change (LUCC) impacting on the Australian continent and how they vary regionally. We review evidence of climate change and underlying processes resulting from interactions between global warming caused by increased concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases and modification of the land surface. The consequences of ignoring the effect of LUCC on current and future droughts in Australia could have catastrophic consequences for the nation's environment, economy and communities. We highlight the need for more integrated, long-term and adaptive policies and regional natural resource management strategies that restore the beneficial feedbacks between native vegetation cover and local-regional climate, to help ameliorate the impact of global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Jurien Bay Marine Park, Australia, is known for its pristine seascapes, including views of the ocean and of the coastline. To aid the management of the various seascapes, this paper estimates aspects of the social value of these seascapes through the use of a contingent valuation study. Positive and negative preferences for change were accommodated within the survey design and model estimation. A single-function extended spike model was employed to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) for protection of the seascapes, and was later constrained to a restricted version of a spike model. The restricted model identified that a proportion of the population had a positive preference for change within the seascapes, but a larger proportion had a negative preference, resulting in a positive net WTP to maintain seascapes in their current condition. Seascapes with coastal views were determined as having the highest social value; however, the value of the ocean seascapes followed closely behind. The positive welfare estimate for natural seascapes provides a reason for their preservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dealing with differing and sometimes conflicting criteria for priority-setting is an essential part of sustainable natural resource management. However, all too often, these ethical and political considerations are neglected within a planning regime based upon apparently ‘objective’ biophysical assessment techniques. Input into associated decision-making processes is also frequently restricted to a narrow range of ‘stakes’ based upon historical and geographic circumstances. This paper reports on the findings of interviews and discussion groups in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, which aimed to canvass the diversity of perceptions of distributive and procedural justice in river rehabilitation. A range of biophysical and social criteria for setting priorities in rehabilitation work was identified. Participants also had differing ideas on the composition of decision-making bodies and on decision-making processes. The key implications of these findings are that sustainable river management policy needs to openly address differing conceptions of justice and that rehabilitation practice should be holistic, transdisciplinary and concerned with both outcome and process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UN decade on ecosystem restoration calls for the preservation of global biodiversity. Safeguarding biological diversity is crucial for the well‐being of people and the persistence of nature. Tree planting offers a nature‐based solution to carbon abatement with significant potential to benefit biodiversity, but how well different aspects of biodiversity are captured in plantings is not well known.We assemble a database of 218 species and >80,000 observations from environmental tree plantings in Australia, and investigate how well they capture eucalypt diversity, including possible climate change effects. We compare this to hypothetical planting scenarios that maximize biodiversity benefits for species of conservation interest. Eucalypt species that are rare, endemic, evolutionarily distinct or listed in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act (EPBC) are prioritized.We find that environmental tree plantings are dominated by very common species likely to benefit from climate change, with less than 1% of rare or evolutionarily distinct species represented. All conservation scenarios outperform business‐as‐usual. The scenario prioritizing endemic species while considering climate change more than doubles the average extent of occurrence for species of conservation interest. It allocates four times more planting area to species of conservation interest compared to a business‐as‐usual approach and decreases weighted endemism (a favourable outcome here) by 38% on average, demonstrating the positive impact of conservation‐focused tree planting on biodiversity.Synthesis and applications. Everywhere, governments are making commitments to halt biodiversity loss. Conservation‐focused tree planting can advance our goal of safeguarding biodiversity while still contributing to carbon capture. We show that eucalypt species of conservation interest can benefit substantially from tree planting where the primary goal is biodiversity conservation, compared to the current approach to planting, which we have found largely benefits commonly occuring species. We measure potential distribution gains for eucalypt species that are rare, endemic, evolutionarily distinct and at risk of extinction (listed), and identify the most important eucalypt species to plant across Australia, taking the effects of climate change into account. Our framework for selecting species to plant based on a range of conservation goals can serve as a guide for future environmental tree planting initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Increasingly scientists and policy makers are acknowledging the importance of Indigenous participation in effective biodiversity conservation. In Australia, the recognised Indigenous estate is vast, accounting for up to 57% of the continent and comprising some of the highest priority conservation lands, including 46% of the formal National Reserve System. The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act1999 (the Act) is Commonwealth legislation designed to protect and manage nationally and internationally important species and ecological communities, which entails specific objectives to recognise Indigenous people. However, to date the involvement of Indigenous people in implementation of the Act has been inconsistent and inadequate, particularly in the protection of the Indigenous estate, understanding and supporting Indigenous people's aspirations for Country and culturally significant species, and respecting the traditional management of species and landscapes. In this article, we will explore the key barriers and opportunities for improving Indigenous participation in biodiversity conservation under the Act. We structure our exploration using the three connected themes: (1) meaningful Indigenous engagement and participation, (2) recognition of the Indigenous Estate and (3) strengthening Indigenous‐led governance. We find that there is a pressing need and an immediate opportunity to reform and strengthen the Act to protect Indigenous Knowledge, to recognise and report on the role of Indigenous Estate, and to realise the aspirations of Indigenous peoples for improved land and sea management that strengthens people, culture and Country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first Australian study to apply the hedonic pricing method to value environmental quality of an urban water body. It demonstrates the technique using a case study of a degraded urban lake that is currently undergoing a programme of water quality restoration and foreshore improvements. The results show that the community places significant value on proximity to the lake and on waterfront location. A range of other data was also generated that adds to the usefulness of this approach for general planning purposes. It is suggested that this technique would be a useful tool to aid in the allocation of public funds among competing environmental improvement projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land degradation and its management have profound effects on environmental quality and sustainability. Given the diverse range of environmental conditions and land uses across Australia, it is not uncommon for land degradation to occur on many different tenure types. This paper presents an analysis of the relationships between soil physical and chemical limitations, different degradation types and their interactions with varying tenure classes. Three continental scale datasets were used in this analysis to analyse degradation propensity in Australian land tenure systems. The datasets comprised: The Australian Land Information Groups (AUSLIG) Land Tenure classification at a 1:5 million scale; the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)/Bureau of Resource Sciences (BRS) Soil Limitations for Agriculture classification at a 1:2 million scale; and a BRS classification of land degradation types and occurrence in Australia at a 1:20 million scale. The continental coverages were rasterized and summarized as a three-way contingency table of counts. The analysis of the three-way contingency table included: summary histograms; a non-parametric analysis of the cumulative empirical distribution functions; and the use of a generalized linear model (GLM). Over 60 per cent of the Australian continent is classified and used as agricultural land, which has a significant influence on the Australian environment. These agricultural lands are predominantly divided into two tenure types: freehold (20 per cent) and crown leasehold (42 per cent). The analysis indicates that although crown leasehold land has a large percentage of lands vulnerable to degradation, these lands are less degraded than the freehold lands, which have fewer soil physical and chemical limitations to agriculture. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of the human population and the impact of this upon the natural environment is there for all to see. Little wonder that public concern for the environment has increased in recent decades. Such preoccupations have resulted in a corresponding increase in the declaration of new areas as national parks, reserves and other protected areas. In Australia the declaration of such areas meets an important need to preserve both the natural heritage and the human and cultural heritage. This paper describes the processes and policy implications of the declaration of national parks, marine parks, and recreational areas in Australia. Jervis Bay on the New South Wales (NSW) coast is used as a case study to document these processes and to evaluate the policy implications. After an initial discussion on conservation and management a vision statement for the bay is analysed in terms of its various dimensions. In the implementation of the vision, various approaches are canvassed. An integrated, total catchment management system is proposed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many small‐scale projects in Australia suggest that ground‐layer elements of ecosystems can be restored, but scaling up of grassland and grassy understorey restoration has not occurred to date. Paul Gibson‐Roy recently travelled through the USA, where well‐developed markets for restoration have created a large, financially viable native‐herbaceous seed production and restoration sector. Here, he shares his observations, which show how much about the USA situation can be a model and inspiration for Australian grassy ecosystem restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental economics has been an increasingly significant focus for AARES and its members. Significant contributions began in the 1960s and 1970s with conceptual insights into the causes for market failure and the design of appropriate policy responses. The practical orientation of the profession led to the development and application of analytical tools in a wide array of contexts. Prominent amongst these have been nonmarket valuation, market-based policy instruments and the private sector provision of environmental protection. Interaction with natural and social scientists has been a feature. Cross-fertilisation has resulted to define emergent fields such as behavioural economics and ecological economics. Multidisciplinary endeavours have also grown in areas such as ecosystem service provision and integrated assessment modelling. These areas are likely to expand further with the ongoing contribution of core elements of the economics discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental policy in Australia, and internationally, has been characterised by taxes, subsidies, regulations and direct state provision. These Pigouvian-inspired measures have paid little attention to the institutional drivers (Coasian rules) that underpin environmental issues. A re-orientation towards environmental protection initiatives driven by institutions that are endogenous to society offers the potential to lower transaction costs and release exchange efficiency improvements of the type demonstrated by Ostrom in the context of common property resources and Williamson in the case of firm organisation. Australian examples of private sector nature protection initiatives are used to demonstrate this potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A framework is presented for terrestrial conservation assessment that has been developed for Bush Heritage, an Australian non-profit organisation that manages land of outstanding conservation value through acquisition or working in partnership with other landowners. The framework is called Biodiversity Prediction using Ecological Processes and comprises seven conservation goals, with a set of candidate criteria and indicators for each goal. Particular emphasis is given to criteria that relate to habitat quality in addition to the more conventional focus on land quantity. The MCAS-S graphic user interface is used to help analyse the indicators and visualise the results in a transparent way that assists the decision-making process. The interface also allows indicators to be weighted differently, which among other things, allows analyses to reflect inter-regional differences in what represents high quality land. The framework was tested in a case study region (the Woodland region of south-eastern Australia), and the results reveal land that is potentially a priority for conservation investments. While the framework and case study results are indicative, and further analyses are required before they can be considered operational, the approach has potential application to other organisations in the private conservation sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on a letter expressed on the importance of convention on biological diversity (CBD) draft strategy 2010-2020 in Australia. The Australian State and Territory governments have endorsed new international environmental agreements which protect Australia's biodiversity and natural resources based on Commonwealth of Australia 1996 national strategy. Topics include environmental protection from the effects of global warming and development of bioregional conservation strategies.

The successful conservation and restoration of the temperate native grasslands of south-eastern Australia is critical to reversing the decline in range and diversity of these threatened plant communities. Yet the goals of high native species diversity and weed management are difficult to achieve in grassland restoration projects. To increase our understanding of whether synergies exist between these goals (i.e. whether early introduction of a larger number of species might improve both outcomes in the reassembly of native grassland), we examined the relationships between plant species number, functional group number and resource use during the establishment phase of direct-sown grassland. We did this by sowing a representative suite of species (at varying levels of species number and functional group number) into experimental plots and then measuring and analysing the extent to which the newly established assemblages captured available resources, i.e. used soil nitrate, absorbed light and produced biomass (vegetative cover). Statistically significant correlations were common between the predictor variables (species number, functional group number, percentage vegetative cover, plant number, presence of idiosyncratic (dominating) species) and responses (soil nitrate concentration, light reduction or ‘extinction’). Higher diversity was associated with lower soil nitrate, while percentage vegetative cover and the presence of idiosyncratic species best predicted light extinction. The relationship between diversity, and plant biomass (measured as vegetative cover) and plant number was positive in the first year of the study. The diversity/biomass relationship became negative in the second year due to the higher numbers and cover of ‘idiosyncratic’ species. The diversity/plant number relationship also became negative in the autumn of the second year and was reduced to a trend by the winter. We found that lower nitrate and increasing plant numbers and vegetative cover were most strongly linked to increasing species number in the early stages of this study. This suggests that introducing and maintaining high diversity early in a native grassland reassembly or enhancement project will improve the resistance (e.g. to weed) of these communities. At later stages of grassland development, this function may be provided by the more dominating idiosyncratic species. The maintenance of diversity, an important goal in its own right, will therefore necessitate managed disturbances to periodically reduce the vegetative dominance of idiosyncratic species, releasing resources for the diverse range of other species whose early introduction will have allowed them to persist in the soil seed bank or as suppressed rootstocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article compares the tradeoffs between boosting agricultural productivity and enhancing environmental quality to identify the synergetic options to achieve socially optimal outcomes. A case study in the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia on carrying capacity-based land and water management is presented. In conclusion, sustainable agricultural land and water management practices are essential to boost productivity, promote regional growth, and protect the environment. This entails addressing the potentially negative impacts of land and water management, such as water logging and salinity and the very impacts on ecosystem health and biodiversity.

Northern Australia's globally significant savannas and rivers face major threats, from cattle to weeds to land clearing to climate change. In the face of imperatives and pressures such as reducing carbon emissions, nature conservation, alleviating Indigenous disadvantage, the resources boom and global food security, how should development be managed to protect its globally significant ecosystems? Nine planks in a ‘Sustainable Northern Australia’ agenda are proposed: (i) enhance investment in mitigating pervasive landscape threats; (ii) strengthen support for Indigenous Caring for Country activities and incorporation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge into land management; (iii) align and strengthen invasive species control and management; (iv) facilitate new economic development pathways focused on sustainability; (v) build climate resilience by maintaining and enhancing landscape-scale connectivity; (vi) protect free-flowing rivers from dams and major water resource development; (vii) establish and effectively manage a large interconnected network of protected areas; (viii) develop cooperative governance arrangements; and (ix) enhance knowledge generation and research and monitoring capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Every year large proportions of northern Australia's tropical savanna landscapes are burnt, resulting in high fire frequencies and short intervals between fires. The dominant fire management paradigm in these regions is the use of low-intensity prescribed fire early in the dry season, to reduce the incidence of higher-intensity, more extensive wildfire later in the year. This use of frequent prescribed fire to mitigate against high-intensity wildfire has parallels with fire management in temperate forests of southern Australia. However, unlike in southern Australia, the ecological implications of high fire frequency have received little attention in the north. CSIRO and collaborators recently completed a landscape-scale fire experiment at Kapalga in Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia, and here we provide a synthesis of the effects of experimental fire regimes on biodiversity, with particular consideration of fire frequency and, more specifically, time-since-fire. Two recurring themes emerged from Kapalga. First, much of the savanna biota is remarkably resilient to fire, even of high intensity. Over the 5-year experimental period, the abundance of most invertebrate groups remained unaffected by fire treatment, as did the abundance of most vertebrate species, and we were unable to detect any effect of fire on floristic composition of the grass-layer. Riparian vegetation and associated stream biota, as well as small mammals, were notable exceptions to this general resilience. Second, the occurrence of fire, independent of its intensity, was often the major factor influencing fire-sensitive species. This was especially the case for extinction-prone small mammals, which have suffered serious population declines across northern Australia in recent decades. Results from Kapalga indicate that key components of the savanna biota of northern Australia favour habitat that has remained unburnt for at least several years. This raises a serious conservation concern, given that very little relatively long unburnt habitat currently occurs in conservation reserves, with most sites being burnt at least once every 2 years. We propose a conservation objective of increasing the area that remains relatively long unburnt. This could be achieved either by reducing the proportion of the landscape burnt each year, or by setting prescribed fires more strategically. The provision of appropriately long unburnt habitat is a conservation challenge for Australia's tropical savanna landscapes, just as it is for its temperate forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential impacts of introducing barramundi (Lates calcarifer) for the purpose of recreational fishing into Lake Kununurra, a tropical impoundment in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, are predicted by dietary comparisons with the resident fishes of the lake. Classification of the pooled dietary data identified five major feeding groups based on similarities in food items consumed. There was no significant dietary overlap betweenL. calcariferand all species within the lake. The current study demonstrates that adultL. calcariferfed primarily on teleosts and decopods, and are known to prey on the majority of the fish species found in Lake Kununurra. Although the introduction ofL. calcariferto Lake Kununurra has the potential to influence the resident fish community through competition (for food and habitat) and predation, it is likely that its effects will be minor. However, the lack of any data that would allow estimation of the likely survival of stockedL. calcariferfry and fingerlings in the reservoir needs to be addressed. Such data are mandatory if a successful fishery is to be developed in the reservoir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on a study on policy options for Great Barrier Reef water quality. Ecosystem protection in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia is a multifaceted problem compounded by susceptibility to land use impacts. Policy to manage diffuse agricultural pollution is required for sustainable natural resource use. Difficulty in measuring individual pollution contributions increases the complexity of policy design. Selected policy options suggested by the Productivity Commission to address fertilizer and chemical use in catchments draining into the Great Barrier Reef are reviewed. Choosing policy options, setting water quality targets and designing implementation require community participation, primarily because of the location-specific expertise that resides in natural resource management groups. The Commonwealth and Queensland governments formed the Joint Taskforce in response to pressure over water quality decline in the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. The Joint Taskforce called on the Productivity Commission to outline water borne pollution abatement policy options inter alia. Diffuse sources of pollution from agricultural activities are considered the predominant source of water borne pollutants in catchments draining into the Great Barrier Reef.