Project: habitat reconstruction and restoration: securing biodiversity assets in the face of climate change

Aim/background:

Australia has the worst recent extinction rate in the world. In addition, over 1000 species are now considered threatened nationally, and many more populations are threatened at regional scales and continue to decline to local extinction because of lack of adequate habitat. Habitat clearance, degradation and fragmentation are considered the major contributors to the ongoing loss of biodiversity in arable areas. Anticipated climate change will exacerbate these biodiversity losses.

The aim of the project is to use the knowledge of Australia's imminent landscape ecologists, theorists, conservationists and modellers to identify the research needs to not only design but also construct new habitats at regional levels to mitigate the impending loss of species from fragmented landscapes under climate change.

Project:

Workshop 1(2 days): designed to synthesize and review the current research activities of workshop participants, identifying opportunities for synergies and research gaps. Also to be reviewed, what is known about past revegetation programs from on-ground delivery to their biodiversity and ecosystem service value, again identifying research needs and opportunities for synergies. The third component of the workshop will take a heavily fragmented region, real (e.g. Mt Lofty Ranges) or imaginary, and identify and document all of the research steps needed to facilitate the recovery and maintenance of the biodiversity assets of that region. Following the workshop members of the network would add detail to the research prospectus for restoring and securing biodiversity assets at a regional scale, develop the symposium and continue to interact collaboratively.

Workshop 2 (2 days): will assess the social, economic and community engagement implications and instruments for implementing effective large scale on ground programs to secure biodiversity assets at regional scales, identifying sources of funding for both the research and on ground works and on developing collaborative research grant applications. A range of additional people including social scientists, environmental economists and resource managers would be invited to attend relevant sessions of the second workshop.

Workshop 3: to be based around the outcomes of the second workshop and likely to consist of reviewing progress, identifying new strategic funding initiatives and targeting them with large scale multidisciplinary grant applications.

Outcomes: