Managing endangered Banteng in a jointly-managed national park: contested values, Indigenous aspirations and resource use. Should north Australia's huge populations of feral animals be eradicated for conservation, or exploited as a rare opportunity for Aboriginal enterprise in remote regions? We examine options for a herd of Banteng, a cattle species endangered in its native Asian range but abundant in Gurig Ganak Barlu National Park, Aboriginal land managed jointly by traditional owners and a c ....Managing endangered Banteng in a jointly-managed national park: contested values, Indigenous aspirations and resource use. Should north Australia's huge populations of feral animals be eradicated for conservation, or exploited as a rare opportunity for Aboriginal enterprise in remote regions? We examine options for a herd of Banteng, a cattle species endangered in its native Asian range but abundant in Gurig Ganak Barlu National Park, Aboriginal land managed jointly by traditional owners and a conservation agency. In this unique cross-disciplinary study Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal stakeholders will identify Park values that may be threatened by Banteng. Those values will be incorporated in decision-support tools (bio-economic models) identifying tradeoffs between protecting values and providing incomes for Indigenous landowners.Read moreRead less
Criminalisation of poverty and homelessness in Australia: A national study. The project aims to assess the policing and enforcement of public order crimes and related offences (e.g. obstruct/disobey police, breach of bail, and minor property offences) on individuals experiencing poverty and homelessness. The project endeavours to collect and analyse qualitative data from across Australia on the lived experience of people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, regarding the impact of crimin ....Criminalisation of poverty and homelessness in Australia: A national study. The project aims to assess the policing and enforcement of public order crimes and related offences (e.g. obstruct/disobey police, breach of bail, and minor property offences) on individuals experiencing poverty and homelessness. The project endeavours to collect and analyse qualitative data from across Australia on the lived experience of people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, regarding the impact of criminal laws and police powers concerned with presence in, and movement around public places. It will particularly focus on the impact on women, children and Indigenous peoples. The outcomes will seek to reduce the criminalisation of homeless people, by identifying law and policy reform options, and comparing their cost with that of 'business as usual'.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0775760
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$101,967.00
Summary
Satellite remote sensing and GIS data processing facilities at Charles Darwin University, Darwin. Northern Australia is vast, remote and spreads across diverse and extensive landscapes. There is no centralised remote sensing and GIS facility within 2000 kilometres of the CDU, Darwin. The upgraded infrastructure at CDU will assist in strengthening the research base in this remote part of Australia. This will allow the NT researchers to focus on the environmental applications of remote sensing and ....Satellite remote sensing and GIS data processing facilities at Charles Darwin University, Darwin. Northern Australia is vast, remote and spreads across diverse and extensive landscapes. There is no centralised remote sensing and GIS facility within 2000 kilometres of the CDU, Darwin. The upgraded infrastructure at CDU will assist in strengthening the research base in this remote part of Australia. This will allow the NT researchers to focus on the environmental applications of remote sensing and GIS technologies which will have many community benefits through better management of water resources, land degradation, wetlands, cultural knowledge and sustainable use of Australian biodiversity. The infrastructure will also assist in the training of new researchers within this developing field.
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Applying macroecology to assist in the management of Kakadu National Park. The ecological integrity of Kakadu National Park is threatened by fires, weeds, and feral animals. To help tackle these problems, we will develop a cost-effective, culturally appropriate, park-wide monitoring system based on changes in the boundaries of closed forests, woodland and grassland. We will gauge the effect of broad-scale land management interventions, and predict the consequences of future change. The findings ....Applying macroecology to assist in the management of Kakadu National Park. The ecological integrity of Kakadu National Park is threatened by fires, weeds, and feral animals. To help tackle these problems, we will develop a cost-effective, culturally appropriate, park-wide monitoring system based on changes in the boundaries of closed forests, woodland and grassland. We will gauge the effect of broad-scale land management interventions, and predict the consequences of future change. The findings of this study will be transferable to other landscape settings in Australia and overseas. It will contribute to debates about the ecological consequences of current land management practices and how these compare with past Aboriginal land management.Read moreRead less
Landscape-scale population dynamics of open forests in the Australian monsoon tropics. Over the last century there has been a trend of increasing tree cover in many landscapes. Yet the causes of this globally important ecological phenomenon are poorly understood, but may include the effects of climate, fire, grazing and CO2. We will determine how an area of forest has changed over 50 years in Kakadu National Park, linking forest demography with remote sensing techniques, re-measurement and analy ....Landscape-scale population dynamics of open forests in the Australian monsoon tropics. Over the last century there has been a trend of increasing tree cover in many landscapes. Yet the causes of this globally important ecological phenomenon are poorly understood, but may include the effects of climate, fire, grazing and CO2. We will determine how an area of forest has changed over 50 years in Kakadu National Park, linking forest demography with remote sensing techniques, re-measurement and analysis of long-term tree demography datasets, and simulation models of tree population dynamics on a landscape scale. This will provide a scientific framework to develop sustainable land management and the conservation of Australia's forest biodiversity.Read moreRead less
Gauging the value of flexible learning options for disenfranchised youth and the Australian community. Investment in flexible learning options (FLOs) for young people who have disengaged from schooling requires understanding of how they work and evidence about their economic and social value. This project will provide both through innovative and integrated methods, analysing FLO sites across three Australian states and the Northern Territory.
Mammal declines in northern Australia: science for conservation and recovery. Australia’s unique mammal fauna is a rich biological heritage for the nation. It provides a wealth of ecosystem services, and many mammal species have special cultural or aesthetic value. However, our mammals are sadly depleted, and we already have the worst record of recent mammal extinction of any nation. Preventing further mammal extinctions, and managing environments to allow declined mammals to recover, will be of ....Mammal declines in northern Australia: science for conservation and recovery. Australia’s unique mammal fauna is a rich biological heritage for the nation. It provides a wealth of ecosystem services, and many mammal species have special cultural or aesthetic value. However, our mammals are sadly depleted, and we already have the worst record of recent mammal extinction of any nation. Preventing further mammal extinctions, and managing environments to allow declined mammals to recover, will be of great benefit to Australian biodiversity and to the ecosystem processes and human values that depend on it.Read moreRead less
Aboriginal patch burning and the quest for sustainable fire management. This project aims to document historical changes in the spatial grain of the patch burning mosaic in an Arnhem Land savannah with an unbroken history of management by Aboriginal people, and in adjacent areas where traditional management has ceased. The mosaic's spatial grain will be inferred by mapping the individual ages of the long-lived conifer Callitris intratropica. Prior research has shown that Callitris individuals c ....Aboriginal patch burning and the quest for sustainable fire management. This project aims to document historical changes in the spatial grain of the patch burning mosaic in an Arnhem Land savannah with an unbroken history of management by Aboriginal people, and in adjacent areas where traditional management has ceased. The mosaic's spatial grain will be inferred by mapping the individual ages of the long-lived conifer Callitris intratropica. Prior research has shown that Callitris individuals can be reliably aged, and population structures are very sensitive to fire regimes: saplings only establish if unburnt for 10 years. This research is expected to provide the first direct test of the hypothesis that Aboriginal people maintained fine-grained fire mosaics in savannas, and inform bushfire policy debates.Read moreRead less
Diagnosing river health using invertebrate traits and DNA barcodes. Diagnosing river health using invertebrate traits and DNA barcodes. This project aims to develop indices that link change in invertebrate communities to specific environmental stressors, and combine these indices with innovative, low cost molecular approaches to species identification to rapidly identify the causes of decline. River health assessment methods, usually based on aquatic invertebrates, identify if rivers are impaire ....Diagnosing river health using invertebrate traits and DNA barcodes. Diagnosing river health using invertebrate traits and DNA barcodes. This project aims to develop indices that link change in invertebrate communities to specific environmental stressors, and combine these indices with innovative, low cost molecular approaches to species identification to rapidly identify the causes of decline. River health assessment methods, usually based on aquatic invertebrates, identify if rivers are impaired but must be developed to identify the causes of decline. The intended outcomes are improved sustainable water resource management within and among states, and improved natural resource policy development.Read moreRead less
Pyroherbivory and the nexus between Aboriginal fire mosaics and kangaroos. This project aims to examine the effects of traditional Aboriginal and contemporary fire management on kangaroo abundance. There is concern that the cessation of Aboriginal patch burning is causing savanna kangaroo populations to decline across northern Australia. In this project, surveys will be planned to determine whether fire regime (frequency, extent, season) affects kangaroo distribution and abundance and the degree ....Pyroherbivory and the nexus between Aboriginal fire mosaics and kangaroos. This project aims to examine the effects of traditional Aboriginal and contemporary fire management on kangaroo abundance. There is concern that the cessation of Aboriginal patch burning is causing savanna kangaroo populations to decline across northern Australia. In this project, surveys will be planned to determine whether fire regime (frequency, extent, season) affects kangaroo distribution and abundance and the degree to which non-native large herbivores compete with kangaroos for forage. Experiments will also be planned to discover how the season of burning influences forage quality and quantity. This project is designed to determine if patch burning can be used for ecological restoration in areas where this type of fire management has ceased and for improvement of tropical savanna fire management.Read moreRead less