The Landscapes and Policy Research Hub was a research project that ran from 2011 to 2014. It was one of five hubs in the National Environmental Research Program funded by the Australian Government. It involved ecologists, geographers, social scientists and economists working together in two contrasting regions, the Australian Alps and the Tasmanian Midlands, to answer the question 'how do we take a regional scale view of biodiversity?' Together they explored the likely implications of changing climate, land use and other human and natural influences on ecosystem processes and the distribution of endemic and introduced plants and animals. The result was a six step process for assessing natural values at regional scale and a set of tools, techniques and policy pathways to assist policy makers and land managers decide where, when and how to most effectively intervene to conserve species, communities and the processes on which they depend.

The researchers involved were from the University of Tasmania, the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, the Australian National University, Murdoch University , Griffith University and Charles Sturt University. They collaborated with managers from federal, state and local governments, community groups, private land owners, industry bodies and non-government organisations to produce the models, tools and publications on this web site.

Acknowledgements

The website was a joint effort by Julia Dineen from Julia Dineen Design (the look), Bernard Lloyd (the feel and the videos), Casey Farrell from Takeflight (building it) and Vanessa Mann (keeping to time and budget) under the occasional direction of Ted Lefroy. The research summaries and reports were produced by Suzie Gaynor and Econnect Communications from original publications by our researchers.

To leave a comment or request further information please contact Ted.Lefroy@utas.edu.au.