Mar 6

Can we do better with our funds to manage biodiversity’s key threats?

Nations, regions, governments, organisations and communities around the world are increasingly concerned about declines and losses of biodiversity. For many, there are important moral and legal requirements to improve the outlook for biodiversity and avoid species extinctions. However, understanding how to best invest resources in management to improve biodiversity is far from simple. Unless we are considering the right information in a logical way, we won’t be able to make the best use of the resources we have. Read more

Jun 29

The changing life of Antarctica’s ice-free ‘islands’ – ECOS

Warmer temperatures mean more ice-free areas and increasing terrestrial habitat in Antarctica, but that’s not necessarily good news for Antarctic natives.

Source: The changing life of Antarctica’s ice-free ‘islands’ – ECOS

Aug 24

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UPDATE: Getting our priority right: 9 publications on Priority Threat Management

Perhaps the most impactful decision support tool we have developed to date, Priority Threat Management (PTM) is a team adventure where a dedicated bunch of interdisciplinary scientists and kick ass facilitator work alongside stakeholders to establish the best strategies to manage threats to biodiversity. Stay tuned as we have grand plans to improve PTM and make it available to the entire world.

I was asked to provide a list of reference on priority threat management, sharing it with you here:

Freely accessible material:

Ponce Reyes, R., Firn, J., Nicol, S., Chadès, I., Stratford, D.S., Martin, T.G., Whitten, S., Carwardine, J. (2016) Priority Threat
Management for Imperilled Species of the Queensland Brigalow Belt CSIRO, Brisbane. (PDF) (see The Conversation article, CSIRO website)
Firn, J., Maggini, R., Chadès, I., Nicol, S., Walters, B., Reeson, A., Martin, T. G., Possingham, H. P., Pichancourt, J.-B., Ponce-Reyes, R. and Carwardine, J. (2015), Priority threat management of invasive animals to protect biodiversity: Lake Eyre Basin ( see the Conversation article, CSIRO website with PDFs)
Carwardine J., Nicol S., van Leeuwen S.,Walters B., Firn J., Reeson A., Martin T.G., Chades I. (2014) Priority threat management for Pilbara species of conservation significance, CSIRO Ecosystems Sciences, Brisbane. (PDF) (see The Conversation article, blog post, CSIRO website)
Firn, J., Martin, T.G., Walters, B., Hayes, J.,Nicol, S., Chadès, I., and Carwardine, J. (2013) Priority Threat Management of invasive plants species in the Lake Eyre Basin. CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship Working Paper No. 17 (QUT and CSIRO) (PDF) (blog post)
Carwardine, J., O’Connor, T., Legge, S., Mackey, B., Possingham, H.P., Martin, T.G. (2011) Priority threat management to protect Kimberley wildlife CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Brisbane. (PDF)

Journal paper (PDF available upon request):

Firn, J., Maggini, R., Chadès, I., Nicol, S., Walters, B., Reeson, A., Martin, T. G., Possingham, H. P., Pichancourt, J.-B., Ponce-Reyes, R. and Carwardine, J. (2015), Priority threat management of invasive animals to protect biodiversity under climate change. Global Change Biology. doi: 10.1111/gcb.13034
Firn, J., Martin, T. G., Chadès, I., Walters, B., Hayes, J., Nicol, S., Carwardine, J. (2015), Priority threat management of non-native plants to maintain ecosystem integrity across heterogeneous landscapes. Journal of Applied Ecology. doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.12500
Chadés, I., Nicol, S., van Leeuwen, S., Walters, B., Firn, J., Reeson, A., Martin, T. G. and Carwardine, J. (2015), Benefits of integrating complementarity into priority threat management. Conservation Biology, 29: 525–536. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12413
Carwardine, J., O’Connor, T., Legge, S., Mackey, B., Possingham, H.P., Martin, T.G. (2012). Prioritizing threat management for biodiversity conservation. Conservation Letters. 5:196–204 doi: 10.1111/j.1755-263X.2012.00228.x

Apr 20

Carbon farming can be a win for biodiversity

Can climate change and biodiversity loss be tackled together by restoring forests? Our recent published papers investigate how and where carbon farming in Australia can be targeted to sequester carbon and benefit wildlife and threatened ecosystems. This work is summarised by an article in The Conversation – here it is!

Farming carbon can be a win for wildlife, if the price is right

Megan Evans, Australian National University; Anna Renwick, The University of Queensland; Josie Carwardine, CSIRO, and Tara Martin, CSIRO

Climate change and the loss of biodiversity are two of the greatest environmental issues of our time. Is it possible to address both of those problems at once?

In Australia, farmers and landholders will this week be able to apply for payments through the Federal government’s A$2.55 billion Emissions Reduction Fund. Bidders can request funding for projects that reduce emissions using agreed methods, which include approaches relevant to the transport, waste and mining sectors, as well as the land sector: for example, by managing or restoring forests.

Forests hold carbon in vegetation and soils and provide important habitat for native wildlife. Restoring forests in areas where they have been cleared in the past could be good for the climate, good for biodiversity, and generate additional income for landholders.

How well the Emissions Reduction Fund can achieve these benefits will depend on three things: the right approach, the right price, and the right location.

Targeting threats alone “won’t save our wildlife” … so what would?

I was fortunate to be a co-author on the paper recently published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment led by Viv and Ayesha Tulloch, “Why do we map threats? Linking threat mapping with actions to make better conservation decisions.” (see media release PDF).

This is a great thinking piece about why we should probably not use threat maps “as is” to inform conservation decisions and how threat maps should be included as part of the decision process. I would recommend reading this paper if you are new to structured decision making and would like an easy read. The authors have done a fantastic job at explaining the risk of not following a transparent decision making process.

As a side note, our priority threat management work in the Pilbara was highlighted as a good example of making transparent decisions (No doubts they are other good examples in the literature!). It’s always a privilege to be acknowledged by our peers, it’s even better when these are esteemed close collaborators. Thanks for your support!

The paper:

Vivitskaia JD Tulloch, Ayesha IT Tulloch, Piero Visconti, Benjamin S Halpern, James EM Watson, Megan C Evans, Nancy A Auerbach, Megan Barnes, Maria Beger, Iadine Chadès, Sylvaine Giakoumi, Eve McDonald-Madden, Nicholas J Murray, Jeremy Ringma, and Hugh P Possingham 2015. Why do we map threats? Linking threat mapping with actions to make better conservation decisions. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 13: 91–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/140022

Jun 2

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Pilbara shows how to save the most species per dollar: report now available!

We are pleased to announce the release of our report on ‘Prioritising threat management for Pilbara species of conservation significance’ (PDF, 10Mo)(The Conversation). This was a very rewarding collaborative project with scientists from CSIRO, QUT, UQ, and WA Dept Parks and Wildlife, with input from 49 experts across land management, policy, industrial, agricultural, indigenous and academic sectors, and was funded by Atlas Iron through the Dept of Environment Pilbara Taskforce.

The work comes at an important time in the Pilbara’s history and we hopeful that it will have a positive impact.

Dust, dirt and ants!

New field story from our team member +Belinda Walters about her three years project for assessing the biodiversity/fire history relationship in the Ozie landscapes of the beautiful Moranoa region. Read more