Our work

Research Program

Hub mission: The hub will improve environmental decision-making. Key biodiversity issues will be better understood and the research will help governments develop practical approaches to securing Australia's biodiversity.

Research program description: The Environmental Decisions hub will undertake research on terrestrial biodiversity in a wide range of environments to assist government agencies to protect and restore Australia' biodiversity. The research will include new tools, data, models and authoritative syntheses that enable Australian governments to make evidence-based decisions that halt, then reverse, the decline in biodiversity. The hub research program is structured around delivering outcomes for each of the five NERP research priorities: values, ecosystems, threats, sustainable use and markets.

Research themes: The Environmental Decision Hub research program is structured around the following 5 themes.

Theme	Description	Examples of expected benefits
1. Values: Understanding major Drivers for Maintaining Biodiversity. Dr Michael McCarthy, University of Melbourne (UoM) and Dr Kerrie Wilson, University of Queensland (UQ)	This theme is examining how different values of ecosystems, species, and potentially antagonistic or synergistic environmental, social and economic benefits interact to influence conservation outcomes and how these should be addressed in conservation planning.	The research from this theme will assist and improve the department's biodiversity on ground management challenges, including within the National Reserve System and on island ecosystems.
2. Understand function / monitoring of ecosystem health. Professor David Lindenmayer and Dr Don Driscoll, both from the Australian National University (ANU)	Projects under this theme will address key questions associated with the relationships between ecosystem-based management and vegetation condition, and species responses, with a focus on the development of datasets and models that will enable cost-effective monitoring and adaptive management. The research under this theme will focus on ecosystem modelling and monitoring case studies at locations around Australia building on existing collaborative relationships: Box-Gum Woodlands, Central Highlands, Cumberland Plain and Central Victorian woodlands, Basalt Plains grasslands of Victoria, Booderee National Park in Jervis Bay Territory, Brigalow forests in Queensland, the wheat belt of Western Australia, and Otway National Park.	The research from this theme will assist and improve on-ground outcomes in managing the National Parks, monitoring the effectiveness of the Stewardship Programs and Recovery Planning under the EPBC Act.
3. Threats: Building Resilience for Evolving Threats. Dr Tara Martin, CSIRO and Prof Mark Burgman, UoM	This theme aims to make the concept of resilience to threat operational using a combination of field research, decision theory, population and climate impact modelling, collaborative syntheses, systematic reviews, expert elicitation, fore-sighting and integration of dynamic threat data, biodiversity data and socio-economic data into planning processes.	The research from this theme will assist and improve Departmental programs including Parks and Biodiversity Science programs; Marine conservation and protected area planning; and Australian Antarctic Strategic planning.
4. Sustainable use of Biodiversity and Ecosystems. Prof Richard Hobbs University of Western Australia (UWA), and Dr Sarah Bekessy, RMIT University	Managing the sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystems demands an integrated approach that reconciles ecological, social and economic dimensions. Research that tackles these three elements simultaneously is challenging due to disparate disciplinary thinking and dialects. The Environmental Decisions hub researchers Hobbs, Bekessy, Pannell, Gibbons and Driscoll drive strong research agendas that simultaneously address social, economic and biological drivers of change, and indicators of utility, particularly in peri-urban and semi-rural environments.	The research from this theme will assist and inform the best approaches for implementation of EPBC Act Strategic Assessments and Regional Sustainability Plans.
5. Biodiversity Economics and Markets, Prof David Pannell (UWA) and Dr Phillip Gibbons (ANU)	The theme emphasises inter-disciplinary research to increase the relevance of the Hub's research for policy and management. Issues researched will include the use of specific policy mechanisms (such as market-based instruments and offsets), monitoring strategies, improving evidence–based policy, accounting for equity in project assessment, and integration of carbon and biodiversity policies.	The research from this theme will assist and inform the Department's use of market based instruments in Environmental Offsets under the EPBC Act and Caring for Country program.