An overview of Australian developments in science and policy for environmental management. Presented to the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at UC Santa Barbara, September 2007.

1. Developments Downunder
- current trends in science and policy
for managing Australian landscapes
Andrew Campbell
www.triplehelix.com.au
NCEAS Santa Barbara
13 September 2007
1
Outline
• Australian context
• Learning for Sustainability
• The role of knowledge
• Improving knowledge systems
• Introducing AEON
2
1

2. My perspectives
• Farming background south-eastern Australia
• Forestry & rural sociology training
• Extension officer
• National Landcare Facilitator
• Post-grad studies, Holland & France
• Senior Executive, Australian Government
• 7 years as CEO of Land & Water Australia
• Triple Helix Consulting
– landscapes, lifestyles & livelihoods
3
Australia: the continent
• Area comparable to mainland US
• 7% to 10% of world’s species
• oldest, most isolated continent
• oldest living life forms, tallest flowering plants
• largest areas of coral reef and sea-grass
• Mega-diverse, extraordinary endemism
1350 endemic vertebrate spp
• 37,000km coastline
• 3rd largest fishing zone
2

3. The driest, flattest, most poorly drained, nutrient
depleted and geologically stable continent
5
The lowest run-off and streamflow of any continent,
and the world’s most variable climate
world’
High 0.7
Australian lowland rivers
0.6 Means that Australian lowland rivers
are the most variable on Earth
0.5 (Martin Thoms)
Thoms)
Index of 0.4
Variability
0.3
Colorado
0.2
Mississippi
0.1
Low 0
amazon
colorado
limpopo
yangtze
missis
cooper
fit
vaa
vis
ree
ura
nth
god
hua
sao
son
syr
sth
Based on Puckridge et al (1998)
3

4. Perth’s Annual Storage Inflow GL (1911-2005)
1000
900
Total annual* inflow** to Perth dams (GL)
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
1911
1914
1917
1920
1923
1926
1929
1932
1935
1938
1941
1944
1947
1950
1953
1956
1959
1962
1965
1968
1971
1974
1977
1980
1983
1986
1989
1992
1995
1998
2001
2004
Annual inflow 1911–1974 (338 GL av) 1975–1996 (177 GL av) 1997–2004 (115 GL av)
Notes: * year is taken as May to April and labelled year is beginning (winter) of year
** inflow is simulated based on Perth dams in 2001 and 2005 is total until 3 August 2005
through the macroscope
• a small young nation in a vast ancient continent
• unique biological & cultural richness and diversity
in a highly variable climate
• at the sharp end of global climate change
• communities on-side
• few people and dollars per unit landscape
• malleable institutions, an open economy
• sufficient know-how to make progress
• the sustainability journey is the challenge of our age
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4

5. Sustainability issues are typically
characterised by (after Dovers):
• highly variable spatial and temporal scales
• the possibility of absolute ecological limits
• irreversible impacts and related policy urgency
• complexity, connectivity, uncertainty & ambiguity
• cumulative rather than discrete impacts
• value-laden issues & new moral dimensions
• systemic problem causes
• contested methods and instruments
• ill-defined property rights and responsibilities
• expectation of stakeholder/citizen participation
9
The integration challenge
• Managing whole landscapes
- “where nature meets culture” (Schama)
culture” (Schama)
- landscapes are socially constructed
- beyond ‘ecological apartheid’
apartheid’
- sustainability means people management
- engage values, perceptions, aspirations, behaviour
• Integration
-across issues – e.g climate, energy & water
-across scales
-across the triple helix
-landscapes, lifestyles & livelihoods
10
5

6. The Australian Natural Resource
Management (NRM) Policy Context
Lots to like about the overall approach:
• Agreement on the big issues & need for coordinated, ‘joined up government’
• Unprecedented commitment from PM down, reflected in CoAG agenda & $$
• Primary industries increasingly seeing NRM as their business (if not yet ‘core’)
• Grassroots farmer and community participation – Landcare and the regional
model comprise a wonderful platform
• Hard issues like property rights finally on the table
• Innovative measures to allocate resources – e.g. Bush/Plains Tender
• Leading new approaches to landscape ecology that recognise that landscapes
are socially constructed and people are integral
• Vibrant NRM research scene, rural R&D model,
some outstanding researchers and exciting research
11
Fitzgerald wilderness
Whole
landscape
community led
12 conservation
6

7. Bush wisdom with the community
• Information collection on an area basis, not
subject or species
• Research hot wired to action
• Information stored in and spread from a
regional base
• Continuity of work, staff and population
13
A big policy agenda
• Defining environmental deliverables - leadership
• Fostering innovation
– Breakthrough technologies
– Smarter institutions, including markets
• Best-practice regulation
• Sorting out the planning hierarchy (i.e. the Federation)
• Juicier carrots and smarter sticks
• Monitoring and evaluating impact
• Continental scale analysis and prediction
• Bringing the community along
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7

8. The role of knowledge
• Knowledge (along with commitment and capacity) is one
of three essential conditions for the development of more
sustainable systems of resource use and management
• We need better knowledge for three reasons:
– To help make better decisions
– To underpin the innovation process
– To learn as we go along
(so that at least we make new mistakes)
15
Knowledge 101
• Knowledge happens between the ears
• An individual cognitive process and highly contextual:
– “I only know what I know when I need to know it”
• Revealed in artifacts (writing, art, formulae, products etc), skills, experience,
rules of thumb and natural talent (Dave Snowden)
• Across quite different domains:
– Including local, Indigenous, scientific, strategic (organisational)
• And different sectors:
– research, policy, management, planning, extension, education, monitoring
• people default to known, trusted, accessible sources:
– credibility, dialogue, easy access & honesty all critical
– timing is crucial:
knowledge is most useful when it is needed
• The organisation of research is thus critical
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8

9. Knowledge Systems
• At societal and professional levels, we must think about how the
knowledge system as a whole works to serve three key purposes:
– Better decision making
– Fomenting and supporting innovation
– Longer term evaluation, learning and adaptive management
• The NRM knowledge system is a classic ‘human activity system’ (‘soft’) as
opposed to natural or designed systems (‘hard’)
• No-one set out to design and build national or international NRM knowledge
systems
• But they exist, and we invest a lot of money in them
• There is value in analysing the whole system to
identify ways of helping it to work better
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Analysing knowledge systems
• Description
– Boundaries: defining the scope of analysis
– Components: describing the elements within these boundaries
• Purpose
– How well the system as a whole can be directed to serve priorities at
the relevant scale (sub-national, national, regional, international etc)
• Function (performance)
– How well it serves the knowledge needs for more sustainable
management of natural resources: decisions, innovation, learning
• Cohesion
– How well the various components of the system
work together in delivering intended functions
towards a desired purpose
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9

10. R&D Corporations
Australian
Greenhouse
Some components of the Aust
•Cotton
•Fisheries
Office
NRM Knowledge System
Australian
•Forest and Wood Products CSIRO ANU Bureau of
•Grains Statistics Community
•Grape and Wine Landcare
groups
•Land & Water Australia Geoscience
Horticulture Australia
•Rural Industries Hobby
Australia Regional
•Sugar
Knowledge Universities NRM Bodies Knowledge
Farmers
Australian
Generation and Australian
Water
Authorities Adoption Indigenous
Pork Management Wool
Innovation
Commercial Indigenous
Communities
Limited Advisory Land
Cooperative Research Centres Services
Commercial Corporation
Meat and •E-Water Farmers Local
Livestock •Plant based Management of Governments
Australia Dryland Salinity Australian Community
State NRM &
•Irrigation Futures Govt NRM Water Grants
Ag Agencies
National Land and •Weed Management Facilitators
National Rural
Water Resources
Audit
•Tropical Savannas Management Department of Landcare residential
•Australasian Invasive Animals Agriculture Program
•Coastal Zone, Estuary and
Fisheries Natural Envirofund
Dairy Waterway Management
•Cotton Catchment Communities and Forestry Heritage Trust
Australia
•Desert Knowledge Department of Environment National
•Greenhouse Accounting and Heritage Action Plan
•Sustainable Forest Landscapes
National Water Commission Policy and for Salinity
and Water
Legend •Landscape Environments and
Mineral Exploration Programs Quality
Bureau of Productivity
Departments of State (FMA Act) Rural Commission
Sciences Coastcare National Water
Statutory Agencies (FMA Act) within portfolios Initiative
Statutory Agencies (CAC Act) within portfolios Bushcare
Corporatised R&D Corporations (Statutory Funding
Agreement)
Funding Programs
The Australian NRM knowledge system
• Total Ag & NRM research spend nationally exceeds $1B per year
• Crowded, fragmented scene
– 40 ‘core’ agencies in the NRM knowledge business at Commonwealth level
– >80 agencies in wider NRM knowledge system at national level
– not counting their equivalents in eight other jurisdictions
• Relevant knowledge for a given decision is rarely dictated by agency,
regional, commodity or state boundaries
– or temporal boundaries – a 20 year old project (especially maps, surveys etc)
can still be highly pertinent
• ‘grey’ literature (consultancy reports etc) poorly recorded,
lots of wheels being reinvented
• How to get the whole system working better?
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10

11. Analysing the NRM Knowledge System
- purpose and cohesion
• The system does not currently appear to be purposeful
– no capacity to comprehend or analyse the whole
– plenty of helicopters, no air traffic control or satellites
• A Cohesion hierarchy:
communication < coordination < synthesis < synergy
– Linkages between sectors are generally poor
– Ditto knowledge domains: local, indigenous, scientific, strategic
– We tend to fund the boxes, not the arrows
– There are no effective system-level communication
or coordination mechanisms
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Analysing the NRM Knowledge System
- function
• How well does the system as a whole meet and respond to the needs of
its users? How does it help us to make better decisions and to learn our
way to more sustainable NRM?
– Generally not as well as it could or should
– OK on nature, cause and extent of problems
– Poor on predicting impact of interventions or continental change,
and on generating practical, profitable, adoptable solutions
– Very poor on monitoring resource extent and condition, and management
practices
– Consequently poor at servicing monitoring and evaluation needs
– Very poor at sharing information on what is happening
where and lessons learned across the whole system;
– amnesia is systemic, built in, guaranteed…
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11

12. Improving
the Australian NRM Knowledge System
Function – helping us to learn at all levels
• Memory aids – making stuff easy to find and access
• M&E tools that pull out and underline the lessons
• Ways of honouring, retaining and tapping into elders
• Centres of Excellence
• Lift the game on Monitoring & Evaluation
• A long term research, monitoring & analysis network
23
Enter AEON
Australian Ecosystem Observing Network
• High level question: “how are Australian ecosystems changing and
what does this mean for the services they provide”
• $20m start-up grant from the National Collaborative Research
Infrastructure Strategy, aiming to deliver:
• Improved understanding of cause and effect in landscapes
• Foundation for innovation along the value chain
– Research knowledge to practice, management tools and policy
– Pro-active adaptation
• Systems thinking, integration across disciplines, trans-disciplinary
research
• Continental scale analysis and synthesis
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12

13. AEON elements
1. National centre focused on analysis, integration, synthesis and
prediction (probably based at University of Queensland);
2. Regional hubs linked to national issues and communities of users
and managers – catchments and regions;
3. Technical, ‘hard systems’ infrastructure such as new high resolution
data sets, wireless networks, sensors and systems
– nationally distributed sensor networks linked by state of the art ICT;
– Long term ecological research sites,
integrating water, soils & biodiversity data streams;
– Integrating and building on the LTER and OzFlux network
– Supported by environmental genomics
capability
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Australian Ecosystem Observing Network
CORE DATASETS
ANZLIC
AUSCOPE IMPROVED POLICY & PRACTICE International
(Geospatial Reference Framework Links
& Earth Systems Model) NCEAS, NEON (US)
Govt Datasets (ASRIS, NCAS, ECN (UK)
NVIS, NLWRA, FireWatch etc) LTER network
PRIVATES National Centre Flux network
(SKM, ESRI, Google, Telstra, for Analysis & GTOS
Leica) Synthesis
BoM
(New water accounting system)
CSIRO/BoM SCIENTIFIC RESPONSE
(Climate models) KNOWLEDGE MEASUREMENT
GLOBAL
(GTOS, LTER, MEA)
Data services
link to NCRIS 5.16
Platforms for
Collaboration RELATED NCRIS
COMPONENTS
ENABLING PFC
TECHNOLOGIES IMOS
ICT Living Atlas
Data management Population Health
Environmental genetics & genomics AUSCOPE
Sensors, metering & telemetry Biological Systems
Remote sensing & high res imagery AEON HUBS
Citizen science tools
Other South-east QLD Southern Irrigated South-west
(TBC) Tropical-Arid C, N, H2O Forests MDB WA
C, N, H2O etc Biodiversity C, N, H2O C, N, H2O C, N, H2O
Transect Nutrients
C, N, H2O Biodiversity Groundwater Biodiversity
Development vs Fire Nutrients Groundwater
BiodiversityFire
water yield Water yield Soil health Fire
26 Invasives
13

14. The regional model:
an integrated approach
• The regional model (56 catchment bodies) is an ambitious
attempt to implement sustainable NRM at a landscape scale:
– Devolve decision making & resource allocation to appropriate scale
– Tap into and build on deep local knowledge and connection to place
– Work across issues and industries in an integrated way
• integration means making whole
– across scales, issues, land tenures and land uses
– in the users’ context
• that requires excellent relationships
• And comprehensive knowledge
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Making the system more Cohesive
• First ensure that activities are transparent and accessible
across the whole system
• Fund the arrows, not just the boxes
– Especially between knowledge sectors & knowledge domains
– Mandate, train and resource brokers and boundary spanners
– Interconnected knowledge networks – exploit new technologies
– A First Stop Knowledge Shop for the regional model
• Reward collaborative behaviour
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14

15. Knowledge assets of interest
Magazines
Spatial datasets
Publications
Reference books
•Reference books Funding
Journal•Journal articles and
(Guidelines opportunities
manuals etc)
articles•Research reports
•Pamphlets Anecdotal
•Magazines Conference evidence
Research proceedings
•Conference proceedings
report Knowledge needs
Current
Specialist Decision
Decision support tools
research
Research directory frameworks
•Programsadvice
projects •Models
•Projects •Decision frameworks
•Specialist contacts
Current research Models •Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets
for advice
programs
NRM Toolbar interface
[Click name to [Click name to My profile
NRM search open My library] see librarian Customise my
Google Australia R&D Directory services] toolbar
Organisation This Worked Here! Click dropdown Update toolbar
assets to view list of Includes form Uninstall toolbar
Knowledge needs
Advanced folders for requesting Help
Events and funding (Playlists) that information from Contact us
[Searches on Decision tools stays open to the librarian
selection] allow drag and
Knowledge market
drop from
Square icon report search results
indicates Add/Delete
which databases
search
engine is
selected
[Click to see current [Click to logout or
alerts plus access login as someone
alert settings] else]
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16. In summary
• Knowledge is fundamental for sustainability
• Public science is fundamental for sustainability knowledge
• Research investors are ‘keepers of the long view’
• The R&D (scientific inquiry) process itself must be nested
within an appropriate framework of governance,
management, adoption and legacy effort
• We need better prediction, analysis and synthesis
capabilities - AEON should help
– Lots of scope for international partnerships!
• Understanding the knowledge need is crucial
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Contacts
Facilitator: Prof Paul J Perkins AM
Email: pjperkins@cres.anu.edu.au
Andrew Campbell andrew@triplehelix.com.au
Science Adviser: Prof Graham Harris AM
Email: graham.harris@ozemail.com.au
http://www.clw.csiro.au/tern/
http://www.ncris.dest.gov.au/capabilities/tern.htm
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