ORCID Profile
0000-0001-7809-0446
Current Organisation
South African National Parks
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Environmental Science and Management | Environmental Management | Conservation and Biodiversity | Freshwater Ecology
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Fresh, Ground and Surface Water Environments | Effects of Climate Change and Variability on Australia (excl. Social Impacts) | Ecosystem Assessment and Management at Regional or Larger Scales |
Related Links
Publications
Freshwater Ecosystems in Protected Areas
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 02-01-2018
Framework for participative reflection on the accomplishment of transdisciplinary research programs
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2010
An operational model for mainstreaming ecosystem services for implementation
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 15-07-2008
Abstract: Research on ecosystem services has grown markedly in recent years. However, few studies are embedded in a social process designed to ensure effective management of ecosystem services. Most research has focused only on biophysical and valuation assessments of putative services. As a mission-oriented discipline, ecosystem service research should be user-inspired and user-useful, which will require that researchers respond to stakeholder needs from the outset and collaborate with them in strategy development and implementation. Here we provide a pragmatic operational model for achieving the safeguarding of ecosystem services. The model comprises three phases: assessment, planning, and management. Outcomes of social, biophysical, and valuation assessments are used to identify opportunities and constraints for implementation. The latter then are transformed into user-friendly products to identify, with stakeholders, strategic objectives for implementation (the planning phase). The management phase undertakes and coordinates actions that achieve the protection of ecosystem services and ensure the flow of these services to beneficiaries. This outcome is achieved via mainstreaming, or incorporating the safeguarding of ecosystem services into the policies and practices of sectors that deal with land- and water-use planning. Management needs to be adaptive and should be institutionalized in a suite of learning organizations that are representative of the sectors that are concerned with decision-making and planning. By following the phases of our operational model, projects for safeguarding ecosystem services are likely to empower stakeholders to implement effective on-the-ground management that will achieve resilience of the corresponding social-ecological systems.
The Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society: an emergent community of practice
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 29-01-2023
Beyond Calendars and Maps: Rethinking Time and Space for Effective Knowledge Governance in Protected Areas
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 25-08-2020
DOI: 10.3390/LAND9090293
Abstract: Protected area managers rely on relevant, credible, and legitimate knowledge. However, an increase in the rate, extent, severity, and magnitude of the impacts of drivers of change (e.g., climate change, altered land use, and demand for natural resources) is affecting the response capacity of managers and their agencies. We address temporal aspects of knowledge governance by exploring time-related characteristics of information and decision-making processes in protected areas. These areas represent artefacts where the past (e.g., geological periods and evolutionary processes), the present (e.g., bio ersity richness), and the future (e.g., protection of ecosystem services for future generations) are intimately connected and integrated. However, temporal horizons linked with spatial scales are often neglected or misinterpreted in environmental management plans and monitoring programs. In this paper, we present a framework to address multi-dimensional understandings of knowledge-based processes for managing protected areas to guide researchers, managers, and practitioners to consider temporal horizons, spatial scales, different knowledge systems, and future decisions. We propose that dealing with uncertain futures starts with understanding the knowledge governance context that shapes decision-making processes, explicitly embracing temporal dimensions of information in decision-making at different scales. We present ex les from South Africa and Colombia to illustrate the concepts. This framework can help to enable a reflexive practice, identify pathways or transitions to enable actions and connect knowledge for effective conservation of protected areas.
The GRIN Meeting: A ‘third place’ for managers and scholars of social-ecological systems (with corrigendum)
Publisher: Academy of Science of South Africa
Date: 26-03-2020
The role of environmental managers in knowledge co-production: Insights from two case studies
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2021
A function-based typology for Earth’s ecosystems
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-10-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41586-022-05318-4
Abstract: As the United Nations develops a post-2020 global bio ersity framework for the Convention on Biological Diversity, attention is focusing on how new goals and targets for ecosystem conservation might serve its vision of ‘living in harmony with nature’ 1,2 . Advancing dual imperatives to conserve bio ersity and sustain ecosystem services requires reliable and resilient generalizations and predictions about ecosystem responses to environmental change and management 3 . Ecosystems vary in their biota 4 , service provision 5 and relative exposure to risks 6 , yet there is no globally consistent classification of ecosystems that reflects functional responses to change and management. This h ers progress on developing conservation targets and sustainability goals. Here we present the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Global Ecosystem Typology, a conceptually robust, scalable, spatially explicit approach for generalizations and predictions about functions, biota, risks and management remedies across the entire biosphere. The outcome of a major cross-disciplinary collaboration, this novel framework places all of Earth’s ecosystems into a unifying theoretical context to guide the transformation of ecosystem policy and management from global to local scales. This new information infrastructure will support knowledge transfer for ecosystem-specific management and restoration, globally standardized ecosystem risk assessments, natural capital accounting and progress on the post-2020 global bio ersity framework.
Principles for evaluating knowledge co-production in natural resource management: Incorporating decision-maker values
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.JENVMAN.2019.109392
Abstract: A key reason for undertaking transdisciplinary processes such as knowledge co-production in natural resource management is to access and apply different knowledge systems to complex issues. However, the value of co-production is predominantly framed by academics. They have focused on research design and outcomes in the form of 'science informing policy'. In this paper we build a more inclusive and holistic framing of knowledge co-production incorporating values of non-academic participants, and values related to the participatory process. Specifically, we examine how knowledge is communicated and deliberated upon and the requirements for this to be done effectively. We draw upon empirical data from interviews with natural resource managers who participated in two case studies of knowledge co-production in Australia and South Africa. Their perspectives are captured in eight evaluation principles that build upon existing evaluation frameworks for public participation. Critically, decision-makers valued science-based outputs not just as salient knowledge sources, but to give legitimacy to their decisions. This need for legitimacy necessitates transparency, fairness and inclusivity in knowledge selection, participation and dialogue within knowledge co-production processes. The practice-based knowledge of decision-makers was important for contextualizing and applying science to specific decision contexts. Another key finding is that communicative competence is central to the process of knowledge co-production because it enables participants to critically explore and understand the knowledge claims of others.
The relevance of cross-scale connections and spatial interactions for ecosystem service delivery by protected areas: Insights from southern Africa
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2017
Social-ecological change: insights from the Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 14-08-2022
Improving the Key Biodiversity Areas Approach for Effective Conservation Planning
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 03-2007
DOI: 10.1641/B570309
Corrigendum: The GRIN Meeting: A ‘third place’ for managers and scholars of social-ecological systems
Publisher: Academy of Science of South Africa
Date: 29-09-2020
Abstract: Original article: 0.17159/sajs.2020/7598 The ORCID identifier [000-0001-7311-3223] given for one of the authors, Stefanie Freitag (South African National Parks, South Africa), is incorrect. This ORCID identifier is assigned to a different in idual also named Stefanie Freitag. The person to whom this ORCID ID corresponds, should not be attributed as a co-author of this article. The author Stefanie Freitag does not have an ORCID identifier.
Priorities for protected area research
Publisher: IUCN
Date: 31-05-2018
The Role and Value of Conservation Agency Research
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-04-2015
Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance–Improving Conservation Outcomes
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 22-03-2021
DOI: 10.3389/FENVS.2021.643367
Abstract: The Ramsar Convention (or the Convention on Wetlands), signed in 1971, was one of the first international conservation agreements, promoting global wise use of wetlands. It has three primary objectives: national designation and management of wetlands of international importance general wise use of wetlands and international cooperation. We examined lessons learnt for improving wetland conservation after Ramsar’s nearly five decades of operation. The number of wetlands in the Ramsar Site Network has grown over time (2,391 Ramsar Sites, 2.5 million km 2 , as at 2020-06-09) but unevenly around the world, with decreasing rate of growth in recent decades. Ramsar Sites are concentrated in countries with a high Gross Domestic Product and human pressure (e.g., western Europe) but, in contrast, Ramsar Sites with the largest wetland extent are in central-west Africa and South America. We identified three key challenges for improving effectiveness of the Ramsar Site Network: increasing number of sites and wetland area, improved representation (functional, geographical and biological) and effective management and reporting. Increasing the number of sites and area in the Ramsar network could benefit from targets, implemented at national scales. Knowledge of representativeness is inadequate, requiring analyses of functional ecotypes, geographical and biological representativeness. Finally, most countries have inadequate management planning and reporting on the ecological character of their Ramsar Sites, requiring more focused attention on a vision and objectives, with regular reporting of key indicators to guide management. There are increasing opportunities to rigorously track ecological character, utilizing new tools and available indicators (e.g., remote sensing). It is critical that the world protect its wetlands, with an effective Ramsar Convention or the Convention on Wetlands at the core.
Related Organisations
Council For Scientific And Industrial Research
Location: South Africa
Related Funding Activities
Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP180100159
Start Date: 11-2019
End Date: 11-2024
Amount: $779,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded Activity