Vanessa M Adams | The University of Queensland, Australia (original) (raw)

Papers by Vanessa M Adams

Pursuing development and conservation goals often requires thinking and planning across terrestri... more Pursuing development and conservation goals often requires thinking and planning across terrestrial, freshwater and marine realms because many threats and social-ecological processes transcend realm boundaries. Consequently, effective conservation planning must consider the social and ecological links between realms and follow a cross-realm approach to allocate land/water uses and conservation actions to mitigate cross-realm threats and maintain cross-realm ecological processes. Cross-realm planning requires integrating multiple objectives for conservation and development, and assessing the potential co-benefits and trade-offs between them under alternative development scenarios. Despite progress in cross-realm planning theory, few fully-integrated and applied cross-realm plans exist. The gaps between research and implementation are not unique to cross-realm planning, but are accentuated by the complexity of spatial decision-making entailed. Based on a collaborative process including scientists, resource managers and policy-makers, we developed an operational framework for cross-realm planning based on up-to-date thinking in conservation science, but offering practical guidance to operationalise real-world planning. Our approach has a strong theoretical basis while addressing the visions and needs of decision-makers. We discuss the foundations and limitations of current approaches in cross-realm planning, describe key requirements to undertake this approach, and present a real-world application of our framework.

Wildlife Conservation Society and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Suva, Fiji, 2011

Executive Summary In 2005 at the Barbados Plan of Action in Mauritius, the Fiji Government made a... more Executive Summary In 2005 at the Barbados Plan of Action in Mauritius, the Fiji Government made a commitment to effectively manage and finance at least 30% of Fiji's inshore marine areas by 2020. Given that much of the planning for inshore marine management is undertaken by partners of the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area (FLMMA) network, this study was undertaken to evaluate whether the expansion through the FLMMA network could achieve national conservation objectives by 2020. The work was completed as part of a ...

Biological Conservation, 2005

Although demographic models have become increasingly important tools in plant conservation, few m... more Although demographic models have become increasingly important tools in plant conservation, few models have considered the implications of seed banks for population persistence. Based on a 15-year study of the threatened herb, Helenium virginicum, we created a stage-class transition matrix to model the population dynamics of the plant. Our goal was to determine the role of the seed bank in

Private land conservation is becoming a popular policy approach, given the constraints of increas... more Private land conservation is becoming a popular policy approach, given the constraints of increasing public protected areas, which include reduced availability of land for purchase, insufficient budgets for acquisition, and escalating management costs of small, isolated reserves. Conservation covenants represent a common policy instrument, now prominent in the United States, Canada and Australia, employed to compliment the protected area network. When 'topsoil' and subsoil, or 'mineral' use rights are decoupled, however, the security of covenants can become threatened if the country's economic policies take priority over conservation policies and mining is permitted where covenants exist. We discuss this issue on a theoretical level, examining four potential scenarios in which use rights are decoupled or coupled. We demonstrate that decoupled use rights can create an imbalance in the costs and benefits, to landholders and the government, from conservation and mining activities on private properties. We then present a case study in Queensland, Australia, in which the discrepancy of biodiversity and mining policies is directly threatening the ecological outcomes of conservation covenants on private land. We also reflect on our own personal research with landholders in Queensland to highlight the social consequences of such a policy position on the ability of State and Federal Governments to meet their policy commitments. The conflicts we identify can be used to improve the transparency of private land conservation.

Para grass (Urochloa mutica (Forssk.) T.Q.Nguyen) is an environmental weed that forms dense monoc... more Para grass (Urochloa mutica (Forssk.) T.Q.Nguyen) is an environmental weed that forms dense monocultures on Australia's tropical floodplains. It is a weed of particular concern for Kakadu National Park managers and the Indigenous Traditional Owners. To inform the design of a large-scale management program of para grass in Kakadu, we collected distribution and control data. This information will be incorporated into a weed risk and management model for Kakadu. Here we report on the initial data collection findings.

There is an increasing demand for development of natural resources, which can be accompanied by e... more There is an increasing demand for development of natural resources, which can be accompanied by environmental degradation. Planning for multiple land uses requires navigating trade-offs between social, economic, and environmental outcomes arising from different possible futures. To explore these trade-offs, we use the Daly River catchment, in Australia's Northern Territory, as a case study. The catchment contains areas of priority for both conservation and development. In response to the challenge of navigating the required trade-offs, the Daly River Management Advisory Committee (DRMAC) initiated a land-use plan for the region. Both development and conservation of natural resources in the catchment will affect human well-being and the long-term provisioning of ecosystem services in diverse ways. To understand some of these impacts, an innovative engagement process was designed to elicit the relative importance of key factors to residents' well-being. The process identified 19 well-being factors grouped into four domains: biodiversity, socio-cultural, recreational, and commercial. Overall, the highest-ranked well-being factors were in the social-cultural and biodiversity domains while commercial values were ranked the least important. Respondents reported low satisfaction with commercial factors as well, noting concerns over environmental impacts from existing developments and sustainability of future developments. We identified differences in the reported importance values for several types of stakeholders, most notably between indigenous respondents and those employed in the agricultural sectors. Indigenous respondents placed greater importance on biodiversity and socio-cultural factors. Agricultural respondents placed greater importance on commercial factors. The outcomes of our engagement were integrated into DRMAC's process of objective-setting to ensure that objectives for each domain were included in land-use planning. Our results can also anticipate potential conflicts between different stakeholders and changes in well-being associated with different land uses. We describe how our findings will inform the next stages of stakeholder engagement and comment on the utility of such an approach for integrating well-being into objective setting for land-use and scenario planning.

Conservation planning has historically been restricted to planning within single realms (i.e., ma... more Conservation planning has historically been restricted to planning within single realms (i.e., marine, terrestrial, or freshwater). Recently progress has been made in approaches for cross-realm planning which may enhance the ability to effectively manage processes that sustain biodiversity and ecosystem functions (e.g., connectivity) and thus minimize threats more efficiently. Current advances, however, have not optimally accounted for the fact that individual conservation management actions often have impacts across realms. We advance the existing cross-realm planning literature by presenting a conceptual framework for considering both co-benefits and tradeoffs between multiple realms (specifically freshwater and terrestrial). This conceptual framework is founded on a review of 1) the shared threats and management actions across realms and 2) existing literature on cross-realm planning to highlight recent research achievements and gaps. We identify current challenges and opportunities associated with the application of our framework and consider the more general prospects for cross-realm planning.

... Name Model Name Model Acanthurus lineatus ZINB Macolor niger ZIP Acanthurus nigroris ZINB Mon... more ... Name Model Name Model Acanthurus lineatus ZINB Macolor niger ZIP Acanthurus nigroris ZINB Monotaxis grandoculis ZINB Acanthurus olivaceus ZINB Naso lituratus ZINB Cephalopholis argus ZIP Naso unicornis ZINB Cetoscarus bicolor ZINB Parupeneus barberinus ZINB ...

Effective fire management relies on the ability to assess the potential risk that a fire event po... more Effective fire management relies on the ability to assess the potential risk that a fire event poses to the community so that fire managers can ensure sufficient resources are available to respond to unplanned fires. Fuel loads are a major contributor to fire risk and any significant changes to fuel load should be incorporated into fire risk models. An example is the invasion of Australia's tropical savannas by the high biomass African grass Andropogon gayanus Kunth (gamba grass). Fine fuel load (grass and twigs <6 mm) in a heavily invaded landscape has increased from 6 to 10 t ha −1 . Consequently, in 2010, the Bureau of Meteorology created two 20 km 2 radius 'primary response zones', which are defined areas of dense invasion in the greater Darwin region in which fire risk is assessed using an estimate of increased fuel load. In this paper, we quantify the effect of the increased (invaded) fuel load on the assessment of fire risk. We do this by modelling the daily McArthur Mark 4 Grassland Fire Danger Index (GFDI) for the fire seasons in 2012 and 2013 using both native (6 t ha −1 ) and invaded fuel loads. We show that the number of days with GFDI >50 (the threshold for fire weather warnings and fire bans) has increased and the length of the severe-risk fire season has extended, resulting in substantial increases in fire management costs. This has safety and resource implications for fire management agencies as the area of invasion increases across northern Australia.

Global Ecology and Conservation, 2015

In order to maintain ecosystems and biodiversity, Australia has long invested in the development ... more In order to maintain ecosystems and biodiversity, Australia has long invested in the development of marine and terrestrial protected area networks. Within this land-and seascape, northern Australia represents a global population stronghold for four species of the world's most threatened marine fish family, the sawfishes (family Pristidae). The distribution of sawfishes across northern Australia has previously only been coarsely estimated, and the adequacy of their representation in protected areas has not been evaluated. The calculated range of each species was intersected with Australia's marine and terrestrial protected area datasets, and targets of 10% marine and 17% inland range protection were used to determine adequacy of sawfish range protection. Marine targets have been achieved for all species, but the inland range protection targets have not been met for any species. Results indicate that further protection of inland habitats is required in order to improve sawfish protection and habitat connectivity.

Vulnerability, Uncertainty, and Risk: Analysis, Modeling, and Management - Proceedings of the ICVRAM 2011 and ISUMA 2011 Conferences, 2011

Benefit cost ratios (BCR) have been applied to conservation decisions for two reasons: costeffici... more Benefit cost ratios (BCR) have been applied to conservation decisions for two reasons: costefficiency and transparency in decision making. Because BCRs are ratios of benefits to costs, the uncertainties associated with the two components (benefits and costs) are compounded. Therefore, BCRs can potentially involve more uncertainty than allocation strategies based solely on maximizing benefits. The robustness of decisions, defined here as the inverse of the number of misallocations due to uncertainties in benefits and costs of projects, is an unexplored component of applying BCRs to conservation decision making. To investigate the robustness to uncertainty of conservation investment with BCRs, we developed an information-gap model (info-gap) for using BCRs in selecting "portfolios" of conservation projects. Our model allows us to explore how uncertain we can be in our estimates of benefit and cost parameters while still selecting a portfolio that performs better than a critical threshold of misallocations perceived to be unacceptable. We first give a full theoretical description of our info-gap model formulation and then explore applications of the model to several hypothetical data sets.

Biological Conservation, 2012

Stewardship programs providing financial incentives for conservation on private lands are increas... more Stewardship programs providing financial incentives for conservation on private lands are increasingly common. We estimate the potential costs of a stewardship program in the Daly River catchment, Northern Territory, which would underwrite the cost difference between routine land management and the additional requirements of conservation management on grazing properties. Based on survey responses from landholders, we first assess the current costs of land management in the catchment and use regression to identify key drivers of spatial variation in both routine land management costs and conservationoriented management costs. We define conservation-oriented management costs as the costs required to meet objectives for both routine property management and conservation. We then estimate the additional costs of conservation management over and above routine land management at an average of 1.99perha.Weconcludethat,ifthemostcost−effectivepropertiesaretargeted,anannualbudgetof1.99 per ha. We conclude that, if the most cost-effective properties are targeted, an annual budget of 1.99perha.Weconcludethat,ifthemostcost−effectivepropertiesaretargeted,anannualbudgetof1 million would support stewardship agreements covering 90% of the catchment's area. Much of the cost-effectiveness of stewardship payments would come from the significant economies of scale in managing large pastoral properties and leveraging the costs of routine land management already met by landholders.

Environmental Research Letters, 2013

Financial mechanisms such as offsets are one strategy to abate greenhouse gas emissions, and the ... more Financial mechanisms such as offsets are one strategy to abate greenhouse gas emissions, and the carbon market is expanding with a growing demand for offset products. However, in the case of carbon offsets, if the carbon is released due to intentional or unintentional reversal through environmental events such as fire, the financial liability to replace lost offsets will likely fall on the provider. This liability may have implications for future participation in programmes, but common strategies such as buffer pool and insurance products can be used to minimize this liability. In order for these strategies to be effective, an understanding of the spatial and temporal distributions of expected reversals is needed. We use the case study of savanna burning, an approved greenhouse gas abatement methodology under the Carbon Farming Initiative in Australia, to examine potential risks to carbon markets in northern Australia and quantify the financial risks. We focus our analysis on the threat of Andropogon gayanus (gamba grass) to savanna burning due to its documented impacts of increased fuel loads and altered fire regimes. We assess the spatial and financial extent to which gamba grass poses a risk to savanna burning programmes in northern Australia. We find that 75% of the eligible area for savanna burning is spatially coincident with the high suitability range for gamba grass. Our analysis demonstrates that the presence of gamba grass seriously impacts the financial viability of savanna burning projects. For example, in order to recuperate the annual costs of controlling 1 ha of gamba grass infestation, 290 ha of land must be enrolled in annual carbon abatement credits. Our results show an immediate need to contain gamba grass to its current extent to avoid future spread into large expanses of land, which are currently profitable for savanna burning.

ABSTRACT Northern Australia covers vast and diverse landscapes comprising largely public and Indi... more ABSTRACT Northern Australia covers vast and diverse landscapes comprising largely public and Indigenous tenures. Long-term Aboriginal and pastoral management, isolation and a challenging terrain and climate have shaped a landscape of national, if not international, conservation value. Northern Australia, however, also has a fragile economy, and there is tension amongst Indigenous, economic and conservation interests. Managed poorly, emerging conflicts could damage the real opportunities that each presents, resulting in major land and natural resource-use conflicts or unsustainable development. As healthy governance systems are the key to effective natural resource management (NRM), this paper presents a preliminary exploration of the health of NRM governance across Northern Australia, with a focus on the catchment scale. We analysed three focal catchments; the Fitzroy in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, the Daly in the top end of the Northern Territory and the Gilbert in north-western Queensland. We find that the governance of each catchment has different strengths and weaknesses depending on history and context. Common challenges, however, include shifting national and state/territory policy frameworks, fragmented funding of science and limited consensus building via spatial decision support. From this analysis, we explore potential reforms in catchment governance across this increasingly contested landscape.