In Ten Commitments: Reshaping the Lucky Country’s Environment, leading environmental thinkers in Australia have written provocative chapters on environmental issues facing the nation. Each chapter includes 10 key issues that must be urgently addressed to improve Australia’s environment. The book is organised by ecosystem, by sector and by cross-cutting themes. Topics include: deserts, rangelands, woodlands, tropical savannas, urban settlements, forestry, tropical and temperate marine ecosyste...

With the global population expected to reach nine billion by 2050, our capacity to provide enough food, water and energy relies on our understanding and management of the complex interdependencies in the climate-energy-water nexus. This book presents a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the interdependencies between these sectors and the knock-on consequences of those interactions for other sectors, such as food production and biodiversity conservation. The interdisciplinary nature o...

The phenomenon of fire in the Australian landscape traverses many interests and disciplines. At a national level, there is an urgent need for the integration of both the natural and social sciences in the formulation of public policy. With contributions from 30 leading experts, Australia Burning draws together these issues, under the themes: *Ecology and the environment *Fire behaviour and fire regime science *People and property *Policy, institutional arrangements and the legal framework *In...

What are the 10 key issues that must be addressed urgently to improve Australia's environment? In this follow up to the highly successful book Ten Commitments: Reshaping the Lucky Country's Environment, Australia’s leading environmental thinkers have written provocative chapters on what must be done to tackle Australia's environmental problems – in terms of policies, on-ground actions and research. Each chapter begins with a brief overview of the 10 key tasks that need to be addressed in a gi...

Disasters both natural and human-induced are leading to spiralling costs in terms of human lives, lost livelihoods and damaged assets and businesses. Yet these consequences and the financial and human crises that follow catastrophes can often be traced to policies unsuited to the emerging scales of the problems they confront, and the lack of institutional capacity to implement planning and prevention or to manage disasters. This book seeks to overcome this mismatch and to guide development...

Disasters both natural and human-induced are leading to spiralling costs in terms of human lives, lost livelihoods and damaged assets and businesses. Yet these consequences and the financial and human crises that follow catastrophes can often be traced to policies unsuited to the emerging scales of the problems they confront, and the lack of institutional capacity to implement planning and prevention or to manage disasters. This book seeks to overcome this mismatch and to guide development...

Australian water policy and management are undergoing rapid and immense change in response to drought, technological advances, climate change and demographic and economic shifts. The National Water Initiative and the 2007 Australian Government water policy statements propose a fundamental shift in how Australians will use and manage water in the future. The implementation of the national water policy presents many challenges – the creation of water rights and markets, comprehensive water plan...

Environmental management involves making decisions about the governance of natural resources such as water, minerals or land, which are inherently decisions about what is just or fair. Yet, there is little emphasis on justice in environmental management research or practical guidance on how to achieve fairness and equity in environmental governance and public policy. This results in social dilemmas that are significant issues for government, business and community agendas, causing conflict be...

Practical Conservation Biology covers the complete array of topics that are central to conservation biology and natural resource management, thus providing the essential framework for under-graduate and post-graduate courses in these subject areas. Written by two of the world’s leading environment experts, it is a ‘must have’ reference for environment professionals in government, non-government and industry sectors. The book reflects the latest thinking on key topics such as extinction risks,...

The rapidly increasing number of threatened flora and fauna species worldwide is one of the chief problems confronting environmental professionals today. This problem is largely due to the impact humans have had on land use through development (e.g. agricultural, residential, industrial, infrastructure and mining developments). The requirement for developers to implement measures to reduce the impacts of development on wildlife is underpinned by government legislation. A variety of measures o...

In the first Quarterly Essay of 2003, Tim Flannery launches an attack on the various lies that we tell ourselves about our resources, our past and our future. The lie of terra nullius that made us ignore the Aborigines' knowledge of the environment. The lie of the Snowy Mountains Scheme that did untold damage to our river system for the sake of white immigration. The lie that rushing to preserve wilderness will save endangered species. Tim Flannery is also skeptical about the myths of mult...

Sustainability assessment is now emerging as a more transparent, comprehensive, integrated and far-sighted approach to decision making. Its basic demand is that all significant undertakings must make a positive contribution to sustainability. To apply this test, decision makers need criteria based on the core requirements of sustainability and the particularities of the context. As well, they need appropriately designed public processes; guidance on the weighing of alternatives, trade-offs...