An increase in coastal population and economic development in tropical regions (e.g., agriculture, forestry, and fishing) has led to increased pressures on coastal and marine natural resources. Although these developments provide new economic opportunities that can improve livelihoods, they threaten the functional integrity of coastal and marine ecosystems and the services ecosystems provided to people. Intact ecosystems from forests to coral reefs allow for clean drinking water and healthy fisheries; necessary resources for communities living in these environments. This was the backdrop of a stakeholder workshop conducted on Kolombangara Island, located in Western Province, Solomon Islands.
Would we knock down the pyramids or flatten the Acropolis to make way for housing estates, roads or farms? You would hope not. Such an indictment would deprive future generations of the joy and marvel we all experience when visiting or learning about such historic places. Yet right now, across our planet, many of the United Nations’ Natural World Heritage sites - the jewels in the crown of the conservation movement - are being rapidly destroyed in the pursuit of short-term economic goals. They are much more threatened than was previously thought. This was the key finding of a paper in Biological Conservation led by Green Fire Science student James Allan. and an international team from The U
Optimizing the spatial planning of prescribed burns to achieve multiple objectives in a fire-depende
Before joining the Green Fire Science lab, I was an honours student within the Wilson lab at UQ. The work from my project has recently been accepted for publication in the Journal of Applied Ecology titled “Optimising the spatial planning of prescribed burns to achieve multiple objectives in a fire-dependent ecosystem.” We have developed a decision support tool that maximises burning for the often conflicting objectives of asset protection and conservation, while remaining within budget constraints. Our tool is incredibly flexible and may be manipulated to suit any fire-dependent ecosystem in which fire management is required. Fire management is an important aspect of ensuring the safety of
Last week I had an absolutely brilliant time at the Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS) at the University of Cambridge. Since I had such a good time, here are 5 reasons why I think you should go to SCCS next year! 1. You will meet other young, fantastic, inspiring conservationists from around the world This really is the main reason you should attend. As students, opportunities to meet other young conservation scientists can be limited to our university and sometimes even to the lab group we are part of. Attending conferences is an excellent way to network and find out what other conservation research and activities are going on outside our own university. So why should you att