Experiencing nature with a visit to a natural park provides important cultural ecosystem services that can potentially improve pro-environmental behaviours and attitudes. So, understanding the accessibility of protected areas and the way in which different visitors interact with them is a key factor in reducing inequality in access and help inform management and planning of…
In March 2018, Brazil has announced the creation of two new large marine protected areas (MPAs) that cover an impressive 92 million ha. The announcement, made during the 8th World Water Forum, takes the protected area in Brazil from a mere 1.5% to 25% of its Exclusive Economic Zone. This has won considerable plaudits in the…
Ivory poaching in Africa has been driven by demand from Asia with increasing number of wealthy consumers and investors. As the ivory usage is deeply rooted in Asian tradition, it is unlikely to decrease the demand by attempts to alter consumers’ preferences. In order to stop poaching we need to change mental models like Biggs…
It’s a long-standing ambition, for society to reach some sort of just and equitable ideal. What that means in practice differs, depending on the time, place, and people involved. But it does seem that meeting basic human rights and needs and the notion of ‘fairness’ are prevalent across discussions of social justice and equity. Things…
On the heels of fiery debate in Queensland regarding proposed changes to land clearing legislation in Parliament, researchers in the Wilson Lab have published a new study describing how land clearing patterns have changed alongside considerable fluctuations in the Vegetation Management Act. “Overall, landholders across Queensland have continued to select clearing locations that may be…
The benefits of increasingly popular citizen science programs extend well beyond helping researchers to collect data, a study has shown. University of Queensland researchers, working with organisations in the Reef Citizen Science Alliance, found that more than half the people attending a citizen science event were likely to adopt new actions to help reefs. Dr Angela…
Researchers from UQ, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED), the National University of Singapore (NUS), and staff from the Singapore National Parks Board (NParks), met in Singapore on February 8-9 2018 with an aim to strengthen the collaborative links in conservation science between these institutions. Scientists and managers from NUS…
In conservation research focus group discussion is a widely used qualitative approach to gain an in-depth understanding of social issues. However, our study found that despite the growing popularity of the method conservation researchers do not adequately report on methodological choices from planning to data analysis. There is a lack of critical assessments of the…
Interviews are a widely used methodology in conservation research. However, researchers with natural science backgrounds have been criticised for poor and inadequate reporting on the application of the method. Our paper published in a Special Feature of Methods in Ecology and Evolution (January 2018) examines the use of interviews in conservation science. Led by Juliette…
Paper lead by honours student Brooke Williams has recently been published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. Fire management is an important aspect of ensuring the safety of Australians. It can be challenging due to many factors such as time and budget constraints, the possibility of a prescribed burn escaping, possible damage to the…
Wilson Environmental Decisions Lab 
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