The challenge of integrating science for landscape management

Abstract

‘Ecosystem restoration is now a global priority’ announced a recent editorial (Aronsen and Alexander 2013), reporting on the outcomes of the 11th Conference of the Parties (in Oct 2012) of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Large-scale programs to restore, or more sustainably manage, ecosystems exist in many countries and landscape ecologists often are at the forefront of those actively contributing their expertise. In Australia, for example, the Federal Government has invested some $6.5 billion since 1990 in a series of natural resource management and restoration programs (Hajkowicz 2009), primarily in agricultural environments to respond to the consequences of excessive clearing of native vegetation. But how do we know whether such management interventions are effective? How do we measure their impact? Is the environment in a better condition as a result of these investments? Could these restoration actions be carried out in a more effective and efficient way? These kinds of challenging questions were the stimulus for a research project in southern Australia, documented in this volume. ‘Landscape Logic’ was a four-year, nationally funded project, which set out to ‘measure the effects of past human intervention on the environment using a combination of biophysical and social evidence, and the experience of land and water managers’. It was large in scale, scope and ambition: personnel were drawn from four Universities, three state agencies, and six catchment management organisations. From the outset, the project was planned to be interdisciplinary and participatory, with scientists working alongside managers. The structure of the book reflects the priority issues identified in consultation with land managers in two study areas. Thus, Part 1. ‘Managing water quality in agricultural catchments’ relates to project components undertaken in the state of Tasmania (Chaps. 2–9), where the issue of water quality was of greatest concern. Part 2, ‘Vegetation change in rural landscapes’, relates to components in Victoria (Chaps. 10–17), where the effects of management intervention on the condition and quality of native vegetation was a priority. Part 3, ‘Integrating science and practice’, includes four chaps. (18–21) that synthesize aspects of the overall project. Two questions kept recurring as I read this book: ‘who is this written for?’ and ‘what is its purpose?’. My initial expectation was that the book would provide an array of new scientific evidence evaluating ecological outcomes of the extensive restoration and management activities undertaken in Australia over the last two decades. However, while the bulk of the chapters are centred on various research components of the project, communication of research findings is not the sole intention of the book. Rather, it documents the ‘anatomy’ of a major project, including what it set A. F. Bennett (&) School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, VIC 3125, Australia e-mail: Andrew.Bennett@deakin.edu.au