Owning nature: mapping the contested country of private protected areas
Landscape-scale Conservation and Resilient social-ecological systems Research Themes Project
Overview
This project aims to improve public good outcomes from private protected areas in Australia. Nature conservation on private land is being pioneered by Indigenous and other communities, landholders, governments, philanthropists and businesses.
An innovative and interdisciplinary research design across diverse cases will provide knowledge of social drivers, impacts and future pathways for private protected areas. This will provide evidence that can guide policy and governance to integrate nature conservation and social justice outcomes, and enhance the sustainability of benefits from private lands.
Find out more about how you can Partner with us or Study with us.
Impact and Engagement
Nature conservation is increasingly reliant on private protected areas (PPAs). However, the political drivers and consequences of the rapid rise of PPAs around the world and in Australia are largely unknown. Equally little is known about: the impacts of PPAs on the public good benefits associated with nature conservation; the relationship between PPAs and wider social processes; and the future opportunities and risks created by PPAs.
The project aims to improve public good outcomes from PPAs in Australia by meeting the following objectives:
- To understand the external drivers and enablers, and the internal dynamics, of the PPA sector.
- To shed light on the benefits and costs related to PPAs in diverse cultural, political and economic settings.
- To identify a range of plausible futures for PPAs and within this to map governance pathways that support just and durable nature conservation outcomes.
Findings will guide improvements in protected area policy and governance that build the capacity of government and nongovernment organisations, decision-makers, managers, landholders, communities and citizens to sustain crucial public benefits from PPAs. Findings will also inform international social research on sustainability. The Australian case is of global significance due to: the potential vast loss of biodiversity across the continent; the central importance of private land ownership to this society; the large extent of Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs); the rapid growth, significant size and complexity of the Australian PPA sector; and the extent of government support for PPAs.
Beneficiaries of the project, in Australia and elsewhere, will be government, private and community-based nature conservation organisations; communities dependent on the socio-ecological values provided by PPAs; wider society through strengthened public good outcomes from PPAs; and researchers in disciplines interested in political dimensions of environmental issues. This research will advance understanding and provide methods for improving public good governance and management of private protected areas as part of wider aspirations for sustainable forms of development. These improvements are directed towards: enhancing societal and political support for protected areas; increasing synergies and reducing conflicts between different forms of nature conversation; addressing public good and social justice objectives through nature conservation; and responding to the challenge of rapid environmental change in the Anthropocene.
