Dr Javier Puig

Forest Engineer, MSc (NRM), PhD (Dr. rer. nat.)

• Research Interests
• Current Projects
• Completed projects
• Students
• Publications
  • Papers
  • Conference papers

Research interests

Javier is a forest engineer/natural resources manager with strong experiences in tropical areas, especially in Latin America. For many years he worked assessing different issues in tropical forest areas using GIS and remote sensing. During PhD and work afterwards he has become involved in climate change and nature conservation issues.

Prior to working at CDU, Javier completed his PhD at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) in Bonn. He conducted his research in East Amazon in Brazil on the topic “Carbon sequestration potential of land-cover types in the agricultural landscape of eastern Amazonia Brazil”. Meanwhile his Ph.D. research he worked for UNFCCC assessing methodology used by Annex 1 countries to report emission by the LULUCF sector. He also participated in a training workshop of scenario planning of a communal forest management project on the Ethiopian Highland. After finishing his PhD, Javier undertook a consultancy job for a UNDP project in Argentina (http://www.ambiente.gov.ar/?idarticulo=4499) and worked for The Conservation Land Trust in a conservancy project of a swamp area in North of the country (http://www.theconservationlandtrust.org/).

His research interests within the School for Environmental Research are:

• Scenario modelling
• Modelling climate change impact in local environment and economy
• Resilience and adaptation to climate change
• Assessment of land cover and forest changes, ecosystem fragmentation, forest    biodiversity and environmental impact
• Estimation of carbon emission by different land cover type
• Model and analyse of ecosystems and natural processes using GIS and remote sensing
• Support biodiversity conservation and wildlife management activities
• Sustainable forests management
• Renewable energy

Current projects

Recently completed research

• Desktop assessment of energy generation and consumption in the NT

• Scoping future scenarios and building innovative partnerships for Northern Territory pastoral lands

The Northern Territory Pastoral Lands and the people who live in, manage and depend on them are facing a future full of promise of challenges, opportunities and threats, but most consistently and importantly, a future that will bring considerable change to both the land and the people. The Federal Government’s Caring for Country Program funded the project ‘Scoping future scenarios and building innovative partnerships for Northern Territory Pastoral Lands’, leaded by the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association. This project resulted on the Pastoral Properties Future Simulator and the development of recommendations and strategies aimed at ensuring a sustainable future for NT pastoral lands and pastoralists.
Javier participated in the development of the Simulator, which was used as a tool to support the scenario planning process within the project progress.

Interact with the Pastoral Properties Futures Simulator here >>

• Integrated scenario planning for climate change across shared landscapes
• Scenario planning for climate change in tropical landscapes  

The NT by the Natural Resource Management Board funded the projects ‘Scenario Planning - Climate Change’ and ‘Integrated scenario planning for climate change across shared landscapes’ to assess the implications of climate change on land use planning and management, sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. Javier joined the School for Environmental Research in May 2008 as a scenario modeller to work on these projects. His work involved the creation of several models of the way the landscape is lived in and used but also with the imagination to envisage a future in twenty/thirty years, hence that people can use to understand the possible consequences of climate change. The methodology did not try to predict the future, but rather explore how the future might look, so they can think how they might react. Scenario modelling was carried out in a participatory manner, with stakeholders from a wide range of sectors including business and economics, natural resource management, indigenous communities and organisations, government agencies, and the scientific community.

The work was executed across three different locations:
1. Top End of Northern Territory
2. Central Australia
3. Dhimurru Indigenous Protected area in North East Arnhem Land.

Interact with the Scenario Planning and Climate Change model for Alice Springs here>>

Publications

Peer-reviewed papers

Puig, C.J. 2005. Carbon sequestration potential of land-cover types in the agricultural landscape of eastern Amazonia, Brazil. Ecology and Development Series, Cuvillier Verlag, Goettingen, Germany, No.33, 159 pp.

Conference Proceedings

Puig,C.J., Huchery, C., Greiner, R., Garnett, S.T., Bowen, L. & Perkins, L. 2009. Beef, biodiversity and burning: modelling pastoral futures for the Northern Territory cattle industry. ANZSEE. Darwin, NT, Australia, ANZSEE.

Puig, C.J. 2005. The Potential carbon sequestration of secondary forest and agricultural land covers in the landscape of eastern Amazonia. Tropentag 2005: The Global Food & Product Chain – Dynamics, Innovations, Conflicts, Strategies, 11-13 October 2005, Stuttgart, Germany. 363 pp.

Puig, C.J. 2004. Looking for alternatives under the CDM to manage fallow vegetation in the landscape of Bragantina area, eastern Amazon, Brazil. Higher Education Forum: Capacity Building in Developing Countries, Bringing Renewable Energies to the People, 1-4 June 2004. Bonn, Germany.

Simpson, J., Puig, C.J., McAndrews, H., Willing, A. and Carvalho, A. 2002. CASSIOPEE – Environmental spacecraft. XXIX International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment, 8-12 April 2002, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 4 pp.

Hyman, G., Puig, C.J. and Bolaños, S. 2002. Multisource remote sensing and GIS for exploring deforestation patterns and processes in the Central Peruvian Amazon. XXIX International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment, 8-12 April 2002, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 4 pp.

Puig, C.J., Hyman, G. and Bolaños, S. 2002. Digital classification vs. visual interpretation: a case study in humid tropical forests in the Peruvian Amazon. XXIX International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment, 8-12 April 2002, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Sánchez, S., Puig, C.J. and Ortiz, R. 2002. Multi-temporal analysis of satellites images. Training experience with AWA, Colombia indigenous community. XXIX International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment, 8-12 April 2002, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 3 pp.

Puig, J., Leclerc, G y Eva, H. 2000. Metodología para análisis multitemporal de áreas con procesos de deforestación. Estudio de casos en América Latina con el proyecto TREES. IX Simposio Latinoamericano de Percepción Remota, Nov 2002, Puerto Iguazú, Argentina. Pp. 395-405.

Leclerc, G., Beaulieu, N., Puig, J. y Jaramillo, J. 1988. Generación de Modelos digitales de elevación con RADARSAT por el método radargramétrico: nuestros primeros resultados en zona montañosa. GlobeSAR2 Mid-Term Symposium: RADARSAT Applications in Latin America, 20-24 April 1998, Cartagena, Colombia. Canada Centre for Remote Sensing. Pp. 374-383.

Puig, C., Leclerc, G. y Bell, W.C. 1997. La cromoesteroscopía aplicada en la percepción remota. VIII Simposio Latinoamericano de Percepción Remota, Nov, 1997 Mérida, Venezuela.

Bava, J.O. y Puig, C.J. 1992. Regeneración natural de lenga. Análisis de algunos factores involucrados. Seminario Manejo de Bosque de Lenga y aspectos ecologicos relacionados. 23-24 Junio 1992. Publicación Técnica Nº 8. Centro de Investigación y Extensión Forestal Andino Patagónico, Esquel, Argentina.

Reports, other major works

Greiner, R. and Puig, C.J. 2010. Desktop assessment of electricity generation and consumption in the Northern Territory. Report to the Green Energy Taskforce. School for Environmental Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia 45 pp.

Puig, C.J., Huchery, C., Greiner, R., Collier, N., Garnett, S. and Perkins, I. 2009. Pastoral properties futures simulator. NTCA Future Project: Scoping Future Scenarios and Building Innovative Partnerships for Northern Territory Pastoral Lands. Report to the Northern Territory Cattlement’s Association. School for Environmental Research-Charles Darwin University and LPM Creative Rural Solutions. Darwin, Australia. 50 pp.

Garnett, S., Puig, J., Huchery, C., Petheram, L., Collier, N., Concu, G. and Brooke, C. 2009. Integrated scenario planning across shared landscapes: a territory-wide approach and Scenario planning for climate change in tropical landscapes. Report to the Natural Resource Management Board (NT). NT RIS Project No. 2007/098 and NT RIS Project No. 2007/099. School for Environmental Research-Charles Darwin University, Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation and WWF Australia. 44 pp.

Beaulieu, N., Puig, J., Fujisaka, S. and Veneklaas, E. 1999. The use of JERS-1 images in CIAT’s benchmark sites in Puerto López, Colombia, and Pucallpa, Peru. In: JERS-1 Science Program '99 PI reports, Global Forest Monitoring and SAR interferometry, March 1999. Earth Observation Center, National Space Development Agency (NASDA), Japan. Pp. 7 12.

Leclerc, G., Puig, J. and Bell, W.C. 1997. High-resolution remote sensing: getting information for participatory research. GIS in Agricultural Research: Awareness package. UNEP/DEIA/TR.97-9 (http://www.grida.no/prog/global/cgiar/awpack/highres.htm).