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Developments Down under - current trends in science and policyfor managing Australian landscapes

NCEAS 13 September 2007

Andrew Campbell

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Outline

• Australian context

• Learning for Sustainability

• The role of knowledge

• Improving knowledge systems

• Introducing AEON

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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

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 endemism1350 endemic vertebrate spp

• 37,000km coastline

• 3rd largest fishing zone

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The driest, flattest, most poorly drained, nutrient depleted and geologically stable continent

Based on Puckridge et al (1998)

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Australian lowland rivers

Means that Australian Means that Australian lowland rivers are the most lowland rivers are the most variable on Earthvariable on Earth(Martin Thoms)(Martin Thoms)

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Index ofIndex ofVariabilityVariability

High

Low

Mississippi

Colorado

The lowest run-off and streamflow of any continent, The lowest run-off and streamflow of any continent, and the world’s most variable climateand the world’s most variable climate

Perth’s Annual Storage Inflow GL (1911-2005)

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19111914191719201923192619291932193519381941194419471950195319561959196219651968197119741977198019831986198919921995199820012004

Total annual* inflow** to Perth dams (GL)

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

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• a small young nation in a vast ancient continenta small young nation in a vast ancient continent

• unique biological & cultural richness and diversity unique biological & cultural richness and diversity

in a highly variable climatein a highly variable climate

• at the sharp end of global climate changeat the sharp end of global climate change

• communities on-side communities on-side

• few people and dollars per unit landscapefew people and dollars per unit landscape

• malleable institutions, an open economymalleable institutions, an open economy

• sufficient know-how to make progress sufficient know-how to make progress

• the sustainability journey is the challenge of our the sustainability journey is the challenge of our

ageage

through the macroscopethrough the macroscope

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• 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

Sustainability issues are typically

characterised by (after Dovers):

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The integration challenge• Managing Managing wholewhole landscapes landscapes

- “where nature meets culture” (Schama) - “where nature meets culture” (Schama)

- landscapes are socially constructed- landscapes are socially constructed

- beyond ‘ecological apartheid’ - beyond ‘ecological apartheid’

- - sustainabilitysustainability means means peoplepeople management management- engage values, perceptions, aspirations, behaviour- engage values, perceptions, aspirations, behaviour

• IntegrationIntegration-across issues – e.g climate, energy & wateracross issues – e.g climate, energy & water-across scalesacross scales-across the triple helixacross the triple helix

-landscapes, lifestyles & livelihoodslandscapes, lifestyles & livelihoods

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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

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Fitzgerald wilderness

Whole landscape community led conservation

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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

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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

• 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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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)

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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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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

Some components of the Aust NRM Knowledge System

Universities

Knowledge Generation

and Management

Regional NRM

Bodies

Community Landcare groups

Hobby Farmers

Cooperative Research Centres

•E-Water•Plant based Management of Dryland Salinity•Irrigation Futures•Weed Management•Tropical Savannas Management•Australasian Invasive Animals•Coastal Zone, Estuary and Waterway Management•Cotton Catchment Communities•Desert Knowledge•Greenhouse Accounting•Sustainable Forest Landscapes•Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration

Knowledge

Adoption

Policy and Programs

Department of Environment and

Heritage

Department of Agriculture Fisheries

and Forestry

Australian Govt NRM Facilitator

s

National Action Plan for Salinity and Water

Quality

Natural Heritage

Trust

Community Water Grants

Envirofund

National Landcare Program

Bushcare

Coastcare

R&D Corporations

•Cotton•Fisheries•Forest and Wood Products•Grains•Grape and Wine

•Land & Water Australia•Rural Industries•Sugar

Bureau of Rural

Sciences

CSIRO ANU

National Land and Water Resources

Audit

Geoscience

Australia

Indigenous Land

Corporation

LegendDepartments of State (FMA Act)

Statutory Agencies (FMA Act) within portfolios

Statutory Agencies (CAC Act) within portfolios

Corporatised R&D Corporations (Statutory Funding Agreement)

Funding Programs

National Water Commission

Australian Bureau

of Statistics

Horticulture Australia

Dairy Australia

Australian Wool

Innovation

Australian Pork Limited

Meat and Livestock Australia

Local Government

sState NRM & Ag Agencies

Productivity Commission

National Water

Initiative

Commercial Farmers

Water Authoriti

es

Rural residenti

al

Commercial Advisory Services

Australian Greenhouse

Office

Indigenous Communities

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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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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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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

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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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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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Tropical-Arid Transect

C, N, H2OBiodiversityFireInvasives

South-east QLDC, N, H2OBiodiversityNutrientsDevelopment vs water yield

South-west WA

C, N, H2OBiodiversityGroundwaterFire

Irrigated MDB

C, N, H2OGroundwaterNutrientsSoil health

Southern Forests

C, N, H2OBiodiversityFireWater yield

Other (TBC)C, N, H2O etc

ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES

ICTData management

Environmental genetics & genomicsSensors, metering & telemetry

Remote sensing & high res imageryCitizen science tools

Data serviceslink to NCRIS 5.16

Platforms for Collaboration

AEON HUBS

RELATED NCRIS COMPONENTS

PFCIMOSLiving AtlasPopulation HealthAUSCOPEBiological Systems

National Centre for Analysis &

Synthesis

IMPROVED POLICY & PRACTICE

RESPONSE MEASUREMENT

International Links

NCEAS, NEON (US)ECN (UK)

LTER networkFlux network

GTOS

SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

Australian Ecosystem Observing NetworkCORE DATASETSANZLICAUSCOPE(Geospatial Reference Framework & Earth Systems Model)Govt Datasets (ASRIS, NCAS, NVIS, NLWRA, FireWatch etc)PRIVATES(SKM, ESRI, Google, Telstra, Leica)BoM(New water accounting system)CSIRO/BoM(Climate models)GLOBAL(GTOS, LTER, MEA)

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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

Research directory•Programs•Projects•Specialist contacts for advice

Publications•Reference books•Journal articles•Research reports•Pamphlets•Magazines•Conference proceedings

Spatial datasets

Research report

Conferenceproceedings

Journal articles

Magazines

Anecdotal evidence

Reference books (Guidelines and

manuals etc)

Decision support tools•Models•Decision frameworks•Spreadsheets

Knowledge assets of interest

Current research projects

Specialist advice

Models

Decision frameworks

Spreadsheets

Knowledge needs

Current research programs

Funding opportunities

NRM Toolbar interface

NRM searchGoogle AustraliaOrganisation assetsAdvanced

[Searches on selection]

Square icon indicates which search engine is selected

[Click to see current alerts plus access alert settings]

[Click name to see librarian services]

Includes form for requesting information from the librarian

[Click to logout or login as someone else]

[Click name to open My library]

Click dropdown to view list of folders (Playlists) that stays open to allow drag and drop from search results

R&D Directory

This Worked Here!

Knowledge needs

Events and funding

Decision tools

Knowledge market

reportAdd/Delete databases

My profileCustomise my toolbarUpdate toolbarUninstall toolbarHelpContact us

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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

http://www.clw.csiro.au/tern/

http://www.ncris.dest.gov.au/capabilities/tern.htm

ContactsContacts

Facilitator: Prof Paul J Perkins AMEmail: pjperkins@cres.anu.edu.au

Andrew Campbell andrew@triplehelix.com.au

Science Adviser: Prof Graham Harris AM Email: graham.harris@ozemail.com.au