University Associate
| Contact Campus | Sandy Bay Campus |
| Building | Geography-Geology Building |
| Room Reference | 226 |
| Telephone | +61 3 6226 7611 |
| Fax | +61 3 6226 2989 |
| smithpe@utas.edu.au |
Wilderness management
Sustainable use of natural capital at optimal per capita levels
Institutional innovations that could improve governments, which includes giving them the competence - and the concern for the long-term - that would make the use of natural capital sustainable at optimal per capita levels
I worked in forest management from 1966 to 1990 for the Tasmanian government agency (and later, GBE) for forestry, except for a year’s secondment to the PNG Department of Forests in 1970. Most of this work was in planning - for both land use and the harvesting and growing of timber. Concurrently, I was also actively engaged in wilderness protection, both professionally and privately.
· In 1977 I devised a method of mapping wild character to assist the design of wilderness reserves. This was used in 1980 by Kirkpatrick and Haney in “The Quantification of Developmental Loss of Wilderness” Search 11(1) and then by the Australian Government for its National Wilderness Inventory.
· In 1977-78, with the assistance of several people, I made the first publicly released movie of the Franklin River.
· In 1978-79 I played a major role in getting the Institute of Foresters of Australia to develop a policy on wilderness.
· Between 1973 and 1990 I wrote 15 proposals for new protected areas (such as Forest Reserves, National Parks and extensions to these) as well as management plans for 2 Forest Reserves and several submissions to government and private enterprise on the management of reserves, natural resources and related issues.
Since 1990 I have worked on the possibility of achieving better environmental and other outcomes in public goods by means of institutional innovations in democratic government. From 2005 to the present I have pursued this work at the School of Geography and Environmental Studies, gaining an MSc and producing a manuscript for a book that proposes a new institution of that type.
The Wilderness Society (founding and life member)
Sustainable Population Australia
Tasmanian National Parks Association
Environment Tasmania (member of the management committee, for 2012 and 2013)
1977. “A Value Analysis of Wilderness.” Search (ANZAAS) 8(9).
2009. “How Economic Growth Becomes a Cost: The Scarcity Multiplier.” Ecological Economics 68(3): 710-718.