A new paper by led by Richard Fuller is out in Nature today.  It is on improving protected area network .

They show that dramatic improvements to the performance of a protected area system can be made by replacing a small number of poorly performing areas with new ones that are more cost-effective for conservation.

This can be done without spending any more money, by trading poor quality sites with those that achieve more for conservation.

See it at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature09180 or email the author for a copy.

The Age, 19 June 2010

PROFESSOR Hugh Possingham’s idea is simple – it is called the endangered species lottery. First the federal government creams off $20 million from taxes on gambling revenue as a prize. Then the names of Australian endangered species are written on balls and put in a barrel.

On Melbourne Cup day the federal environment minister draws a ball from the barrel live on television just before the big race. Landholders who have populations of the winning species on their property are given a slice of the $20 million pie, with more money apportioned for larger populations.

Possingham, a world-renowned ecologist and mathematician at the University of Queensland, says the lottery would encourage landowners to look after and even increase these populations of endangered species in the hope of winning money … READ ON

Representatives from close to 90 countries gathering in Busan, Korea, this week, have approved the formation of a new organization to monitor the ecological state of the planet and its natural resources. Dubbed the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the new entity will likely meet for the first time in 2011 and operate much like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

In essence, that means the IPBES will specialize in “peer review of peer review”, says Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for the United Nations Environment Programme, which has so far hosted the IPBES birth process.

Read the article HERE

I have no idea, however Ecology and Environmental Research at UQ must be a candidate based on Web of Science data. [NB there are probably 40 or 50 ecologists/environmental scientists at UQ scattered across two faculties in at least four schools]. Read the rest of this entry »

L to R: Professor Hugh Possingham, Brian Sherman AM, Her Excellency Quentin Bryce AC, Australia's Governor-General, Dr Ian Ball and Mr Matt Watts

Mr Matt Watts, Dr Ian Ball and Professor Hugh Possingham  awarded the Sherman Eureka prize for Environmental Research – Marxan:Software for desinging networks of protected areas.

www.uq.edu.au/marxan

The Great Barrier Reef is one of Australia’s greatest environmental treasures. But its size and fragility have made the ecosystem difficult to protect.  That was before Marxan revolutionised conservation planning. In 2004, this cutting-edge software program helped rezone the Great Barrier Reef, increasing the size of the Marine Park from 5% to 33% of the region.

In recognition of this impact, the Marxan Development Team has won this year’s Sherman Eureka Prize for Environmental Research. Read the rest of this entry »

Available through Oxford Uni Press

Edited by Atte Moilanen (Uni of Helsinki, Finland), Kerrie A Wilson & Hugh P Possingham (both UQ)

Available on line at Oxford University Press

• Read the rest of this entry »

An AEDA paper published in Conservation Letters on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) and biodiversity conservation hits 65 media outlets and radio.  Lead by Oscar Venter, an AEDA PhD student (www.aeda.edu.au), researchers from around the world have determined that REDD could offset deforestation if used in cost-efficient areas, such a Kalimantan.