The Wilson Environmental Decisions Lab is a research group working on applied environmental research. The lab is led by Professor Kerrie Wilson at the Queensland University of Technology.

Research Themes:

Ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation

Ecosystem services are the direct and indirect benefits that people derive from ecosystems including the production of goods (e.g. food, water, raw materials), process that support and regulate life (e.g. regulation of water flows, climate regulation, moderation of extreme events, carbon sequestration) and cultural connections that enhance human experience (e.g. scenic beauty, recreation, cultural heritage). We are increasingly aware of how vital these services are to human wellbeing globally, and the urgent need to prevent their loss or degradation. Read more

Restoration prioritisation

Conservation has many facets, ranging from biodiversity protection to management of invasive species to restoration of degraded lands. Globally, forest biomes have been subjected to extensive land clearing generating significant carbon emissions, depleting important ecosystem services and threatening biodiversity. In many cases, protection alone may not be sufficient and restoration is urgently needed to reverse human damage and prevent ongoing attrition of species from isolated forest fragments and reinstate ecosystem services. Read more

Conservation and development in production landscapes

Protected areas may be the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation strategies, but they are not adequate nor sufficient to protect a full range of biodiversity across the wider landscape. They also do not supply all the values we can derive from healthy, functioning ecosystems where and when we need them. In this project, we focus on conservation and development strategies in production landscapes – where satisfying the multiple objectives of diverse stakeholders is a key policy challenge. It is a complex problem, involving many alternative land management options across biophysically and socially heterogeneous landscapes. Read more

Conservation decision-making in socio-ecological systems

Making effective decisions for biodiversity conservation requires an understanding of the social system in which conservation actions are designed, planned for, and implemented. Humans are social beings, and as such decisions are not made independently of others. How people are connected to each other and their connections to the environment bring uncertainty to the process of deciding what conservation actions to apply where and when.  Our research in this area draws upon theory and tools from the social sciences to understand the interplay between social and ecological variables and how they affect conservation outcomes. Read more

Conservation planning in Antarctica

Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs) are a key element of Antarctica’s terrestrial and marine conservation, but the current network is inadequate, unrepresentative, and needs revision. We will advance conservation planning tools to help the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties (ATCPs) create a coordinated, continent-wide network of protected areas. Informed by the spatial data-streams we will use systematic conservation planning methods to generate proposals for multilateral networks that satisfy representativeness, adequacy, and equity constraints. Read more