Not more, but strategic collaboration needed to save Borneo’s Orangutan

A recent report led by PhD student Courtney Morgans highlights the importance of strategic partnerships between Non-Government conservation organizations.  By combining quantitative network analysis methodologies with qualitative perception assessments, the study reveals frequent collaboration and knowledge sharing between the 61 organizations identified. However, many of these collaborative endeavors are failing to achieve desired outcomes and…

First integrative trend analysis for a great ape species in Borneo

A first population trend analysis of Critically Endangered Bornean orangutans reveals that despite decades of conservation work, the species is declining. This is the first study to bring together data from a combination of different survey methods, including helicopter surveys, traditional ground surveys, and interviews with local communities and involved over 50 Indonesian, Malaysian and…

Valerie Hagger awarded the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment

Valerie was recently awarded the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment from the Ecological Society of Australia to investigate carbon storage and biodiversity potential of environmental planting sites across Australia. The grant will be used to elicit information on the fauna habitat values of planted species for woodland dependent birds to estimate biodiversity potential. Existing estimates of…

Angela Guerrero’s work profiled by the government-funded Threatened Species Recovery Hub

Angela Guerrero’s research focuses on the people side of conservation: how governance systems and the decision-making processes can be designed to enable effective management. Last year Angela worked with the National Environmental Science Programme’s Threatened Species Recovery Hub (TSR) to examine recovery efforts across Australia in an effort to identify the barriers and enablers of successful recovery efforts.…

Ethics of Conservation Triage

Conservation triage is hard. The fact conservation decisions are made everyday doesn’t make it easier to face decisions to potentially sacrifice hope for highly threatened species in order to better protect the ‘greater good’. In our new paper, “Ethics of conservation triage”, we argue that triage should be hard: conservation triage is far from ‘just’…

Liz Law accepted into UQ’s Future Leaders Program

Congratulations to Liz Law, who has been included in this year’s UQ Future Leaders Program! The UQ Future Leaders program recognises graduating students who have gone beyond their typical program of studies to make a positive impact on campus, their community and even the world. Only a small proportion of the near 10,000 new alumni…

Expand, not just extend, forestry moratorium

Opinion piece by Sugeng Budiharta – Monday May 25, 2015, the Jakarta Post President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has assured he will extend the country’s forestry moratorium as proof of his commitment to protect nature. This implies that there will be no new permits to convert primary forests and peatlands within the moratorium areas for the…