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.

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. We aim to identify and design conservation strategies that are effective, efficient, and equitable for all stakeholders.

Our research has three overarching aims:

1. Improving model design and parameterisation: we integrate recent developments in causal inference and impact evaluation into our research, not just through improving the evidence base, but also by understanding what constitutes the ‘best available data’ and the best use of available data in different contexts.
2. Develop and apply novel methods to analyse trade-offs: recent advances in optimization and computing are starting to allow us to complex problems with numerous objectives. We apply these novel methods to analyse policy options for case study regions.
3. Improve theory for land sharing and land sparing: Land use policies can generally be constructed as either land sharing (i.e. integrating land use objectives) or land sparing (i.e. separation of land use objectives). We analyse the preference for these policies for multiple ecosystem services in heterogeneous landscapes to develop generalized theory.

We are developing several case studies, which highlight and exemplify key conservation and development challenges:

The intensive agricultural regions of Australia, and focus on the Brigalow Belt regional ecosystem

The Ex-Mega Rice Project, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Read these stories in Decision Point magazine…

Causal inference in conservation

How can we be confident that a conservation intervention had a positive impact? This was the central question at a recent workshop at the University of Queensland on causal inference.

We’ve all heard the adage that ‘correlation does not imply causation’ – so we wanted to find out what does! We brought in Paul Ferraro, an international expert on the topic to train 30 CEED staff and students on the art (and science) of causal inference. (Paul is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University; he’s also an advisor to the Global Environmental Facility). Paul has over a decade of experience… read more

Linked themes

Ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation

Key references

Meijaard, E., Santika, T., Wilson, K.A., Budiharta, S., Kusworo, A., Law, E.A., Friedman, R., Hutabarat, J.A., Indrawan, T.P., Sherman, J. and St. John, F.A. (In press, published online 17.02.2020). Toward improved impact evaluation of community forest management in Indonesia. Conservation Science and Practice, p.e2189. doi:10.1111/csp2.189

Santika, T., Wilson, K.A., Budiharta, S., Law, E.A., Poh, T.M., Ancrenaz, M., Struebig, M.J. and Meijaard, E. 2019. Does oil palm agriculture help alleviate poverty? A multidimensional counterfactual assessment of oil palm development in Indonesia. World Development. 120:105-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.04.012

Santika, T., Wilson, K.A., Budiharta , S. Kusworo, A., Meijaard, E., Law, E.A., Friedman, R., Hutabarat, J.A., Indrawan, T.P., St John, F.A.V. and Struebig, M.J. 2019. Heterogeneous impacts of community forestry on forest conservation and poverty alleviation: evidence from Indonesia, People and Nature. 1(2): 204-219. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.25

Morgans C., Santika T., Meijaard E., Ancrenaz M. and Wilson, K. 2019. Cost-benefit based prioritisation of orangutan conservation actions in Indonesian Borneo. Biological Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.108236

Simmons, B.A., Marcos-Martinez, R., Law, E.A., Bryan, B. A. and Wilson, K.A. 2018. Frequent policy uncertainty can negate the benefits of forest conservation policy. Environmental Science & Policy. 89: 401-411. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2018.09.011

Simmons, B. A., Law, E., Marcos-Martinez, R., Bryan, B. A., McAlpine, C. and Wilson, K. A. 2018. Spatial and temporal patterns of land clearing during policy change. Land Use Policy. 75: 399-410. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.03.049

Abram, N.K., Meijaard, E., Wilson, K.A., Davis, J.T., Wells, J.A., Ancrenaz, M., Budiharta, S., Durrant, A., Fakhruzzi, A., Runting, R.K., Gaveau, D., Mengersen, K. 2017. Oil palm-community conflict mapping in Indonesia: A case for better community liaison in planning for development initiatives. Applied Geography. 78: 33-44.  http://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2016.10.005

Santika, T., Meijaard, T., Budiharta, S., Law, E.A., Kusworo, A., Hutabarat, J.A., Indrawan, T.P., Struebig, M., Raharjo, S., Huda, I., Sulhani, Ekaputri, A.D., Trison, S., Stigner, M., Wilson, K.A. 2017. Community forest management in Indonesia: avoided deforestation in the context of anthropogenic and climate complexities. Global Environmental Change. 46: 60-71. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.08.002

Santika, T., Ancrenaz, M., Wilson, K. A., Spehar, S., Abram, N., Banes, G. L., Campbell-Smith, G., Curran, L., d’Arcy, L., Delgado, R. A., Erman, A., Goossens, B., Hartanto, H., Houghton, M., Husson, S. J., Kuehl, H. S., Lackman, I., Leiman, A., Sanchez, K. L., Makinuddin, N., Marshall, A. J., Meididit, A., Mengersen, K., Nardiyono, Musnanda, Nurcahyo, A., Odom, K., Panda, A., Prasetyo, D., Purnomo, Rafiastanto, A., Raharjo, Slamet, R., Ratnasari, D., Russon, A. E., Santana, A. H., Santoso, E., Sapari, I., Sihite, J., Suyoko, A., Tjiu, A., Utami-Atmoko, S. S., van Schaik, C. P., Voigt, M., Wells, J., Wich, S. A., Willems, E. P. and Meijaard, E. 2017. First integrative trend analysis for a great ape species in Borneo. Scientific Reports. 7: 4839. http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-04435-9

Runting, R. K., E. Meijaard, N. K. Abram, J. A. Wells, D. L. A. Gaveau, M. Ancrenaz, H. P. Possingham, S. A. Wich, F. Ardiansyah, M. T. Gumal, L. Ambu, & K. A. Wilson. 2015. Alternative futures for Borneo show the value of integrating economic and conservation targets across borders. Nature Communications. 6: 6819. http://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13457

Santika, T., McAlpine, C. A., Lunney, D., Wilson, K. A., and Rhodes. J. R. 2015. Assessing spatio-temporal priorities for species’ recovery in broad-scale dynamic landscapes. Journal of Applied Ecology. 52(4): 832-840. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12441

Santika, T., Meijaard E., and Wilson, K.A. 2015. Designing multifunctional landscapes for forest conservation. Environmental Research Letters. Environmental Research Letters. 10(11): 114012. http://stacks.iop.org/1748-9326/10/i=11/a=114012

Law E.A, and Wilson K.A. 2015. Providing context for the land-sharing and land-sparing debate. Conservation Letters. 8: 404-413. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/conl.12168

Law E.A., Meijaard E, Bryan B.A., Mallawarachchi T, Koh L.P., Wilson K.A. 2015. Better land-use allocation outperforms land sparing and land sharing approaches to conservation in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Biological Conservation. 186: 276-286. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2015.03.004