Does monitoring and evaluation improve joint management? The case of national parks in the Northern TerritoryProject team: Peter Whitehead, Stephen Garnett, Natasha Stacey, Arturo Izurieta This project will identify whether monitoring and evaluation with the participation of stakeholders, including Indigenous Traditional Owners, enhances the benefits of joint management of parks and reserves in Australia. It will determine the elements required to implement participatory monitoring and evaluation in a cost effective manner, even in situations where stakeholders differ in views and power. It will answer central questions facing natural resource managers, including: To what extent can synergies between conservation goals and development goals be an outcome of integrated conservation and development initiatives? Can participation in monitoring and evaluation empower stakeholders and improve outcomes? View Monitoring and Evaluation of Joint Management Page >>
Remote Sensing and the Economics of Fire Management for Sustainable PastoralismProject team: Adam Drucker, Stephen Garnett and Niilo Gobius (James Cook University) This project will model and investigate the economics of fire management on the Cape York Peninsula using current and historical individual pastoral property financial records, environmental trend records, and remotely-sensed fire scar imagery. A set of pastoral properties will be assessed as to the relative use of ‘early’, ‘dry’ or ‘storm’ burning and the resulting effect of achieving property management objectives (such as restricting dry season fires, maintaining healthy cattle, preventing/reversing woody thickening). Results, which will have applications throughout northern Australia, will permit pastoralists to gain improved understanding of the overall relevance of fire to sustainable production and environments, while development and natural resource management agencies will gain valuable economic information regarding the coordination of fire management on pastoral properties, conservation areas and indigenous lands.
Developing Techniques for Measuring the Performance of Conservation and Development ProgramsProject team: Bruce Campbell (CIFOR), Jeff Sayer (WWF International), Terry Sunderland (CIFOR), Stephen Garnett, Manuel Ruiz Perez (University of Madrid), Karah Wertz This project seeks to develop and implement an approach to measure the environmental outcomes and changes in peoples’ livelihoods resulting from landscape-scale conservation interventions. The approach involves the selection of simple sets of performance indicators through participatory processes with a variety of stakeholders. Social learning techniques are also used to help stakeholders develop greater understandings of landscape system dynamics and the linkages between livelihood and conservation objectives. In collaboration with WWF and CIFOR, the project team has already run three workshops to develop and test the approach in field sites in Africa (Morocco, Central African Republic and Tanzania).From 2006, the approach will be further implemented and refined in field sites in the Lower Mekong (Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos).
Valuing and Managing the Ecosystem Services of Tropical RiversProject team: Anna Straton (CSIRO), Sue Jackson (CSIRO), Adam Drucker, Nick Abel, Stephen Garnett and Kerstin Zander The tropical river systems of northern Australia are facing increasing development pressure. These river systems form a fundamental part of the northern landscape and support critical values of the tropical savannas of Australia. Proposals for development need to consider economic, social, cultural and environmental values and impacts. This project will investigate the value of tropical river ecosystem services and the management mechanisms that are capable of maintaining these values. This project will identify the ecosystem services underpinning economic, social and cultural activities and environmental assets in 3 case study tropical river systems, one each in Qld, the NT and WA. Key ecosystem services will be chosen for further exploration of the relationships between land-use impacts, ecosystem processes, and economic, social, cultural and/or environmental values. The drivers and institutional arrangements surrounding land-uses will be identified to underpin the development of management options that can maintain these values. Management options will be evaluated for their cost-effectiveness and triple-bottom line impacts. This project will be based in participatory, cross-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder research principles, and in frameworks and methodologies that enable the less visible or non-market values and costs of development scenarios to be estimated and integrated into decision-making.
Recently completed researchAssessing Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Whale Sharks (Rhincodon typus) in Eastern Indonesia: A Pilot Study with Fishing Communities in Nusa Tenggara TimurProject team: Natasha Stacey, Johanna Karam, Mark Meekan (AIMS) In Australia, whale sharks are highly valued for ecotourism and a large tourism industry has built-up around the aggregation of whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia. However, little is known about the migration of these populations beyond Australian waters. This project will look at the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) held by Bajo fishers about the migration and behaviour of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) from the waters off the Western Australian coast into eastern Indonesia. The research will also investigate potential human threats facing whale sharks at identified aggregation areas in eastern Indonesia. The results of the research will complement research being undertaken by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) to track whale shark movement in the waters north of Australia and form the basis of recommendations for extending this study to other locations in eastern Indonesia. The project will contribute towards developing collaborative conservation and management measures for whale shark populations across international borders. Download the Final Report (.pdf 3MB) >>
Importance of Economic Valuation of Smallholder Producer Cattle Trait Preferences for Breeding Programme Design in Eastern Africa, in the Context of Trypanotolerance: Case of Kenya and EthiopiaProject team: Emily Ouma, Adam Drucker and Awudu Abdulai The aim of this Ph.D. study is to assess smallholder farmer genetic preferences for cattle traits, in the context of trypanotolerance in selected production systems in eastern Africa. Specifically, the study seeks: i) to determine the socio–economic reasons for keeping cattle among cattle keeping households across a range of production systems in eastern Africa, as well as their breeding practices and development objectives; ii) to identify and estimate producer preferences for cattle traits and identify factors driving the preference structure; iii) to determine whether characterization in terms of breed improvement for various production systems is necessary based on producer preferences estimated in (ii) above; iv) To investigate routes by which cattle keepers can access genetically improved livestock and identify obstacles to access of this technology; and (v) to draw recommendations and policy implications on the basis of the study results.
Feasibility Study for North Queensland Tropical Birding TrailsProject team: Stephen Garnett, Noel Preece, Penny van Oosterzee The North Queensland Tropical Birding Trails (NQTBT) concept was developed to promote bird-watching destinations in the Townsville Enterprise Region. This study found that the market potential of the nature-based segment is likely to be in the vicinity of $75 to $150 million, and the segment interested in watching birds as a part of their experiences would generate about 10% to 20% of this. Over 50 sites were identified to have special birding attributes, of which 20 within six local government regions were considered to be high value sites for the quality of the bird-watching experience and for the species and variety of birds present. The report recommends judicious investment in the NQTBT, as the information available at present on which to base investment decisions is insubstantial. Returns from investment need to be assessed from the results of a staged development program. Monitoring of the success of each stage of the development is recommended, with feedback from the monitoring results informing future actions and works.
Economic Analysis of Fire Management on Cape York PeninsulaProject team: Marty Luckert, Adam Drucker, Gabriel Crowley, Stephen Garnett, Peter Thompson, Joe Rolfe, Bill Holmes Fire is one of the few tools available to pastoral managers on Cape York Peninsula and substantial sums are spent establishing and maintaining firebreaks through the dry season. Without breaks fire can remove fodder, destroy infrastructure and, under some circumstances, induce thickening of the vegetation and loss of biodiversity. This study worked with fire and pastoral managers and scientists to ascertain the costs and benefits of different fire management strategies. The work is the start of a project that assist fire managers make decisions about the best burning strategy and the circumstances under which fire management, control and information provision can be justified as an institutionalised government service.
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