Science informs our conservation work. Ecologists and field staff work closely with university partners and other researchers to build and share knowledge, skills and capacity.
We also collaborate with Traditional Owners. ‘Two-way learning’ brings traditional knowledge and science together to broaden our collective understanding of country and how to keep it healthy.
Our science program is used to:
1. Understand the land and its plants and animals
Science intern Emily Mathews holds an Eyrean Earless Dragon on Boolcoomatta Station Reserve. Photo Dianne Davies.
Science helps us identify the sites, species, ecosystems and landscapes most in need of protection, and informs our actions.
When a project begins biodiversity surveys help provide knowledge of the species and ecosystems on the land, to ensure we can manage them effectively.
As our property portfolio grows and the number of partnerships increases, we're increasingly looking to citizen scientists and collaborative programs (such as BushBlitz) to help us gather knowledge, monitor our impact and build opportunities for young scientists to learn from our staff.
2. Generate new knowledge
There's still a lot we don’t know about the best ways to restore damaged ecosystems and rebuild species populations.
An ultrasonic bat detector deployed in the Tasmanian Midlands. Photo Kirsty Dixon.
Research is focused on such questions. Sharing what we learn with our partners, supporters, the scientific and conservation community as well as the general public helps to build knowledge and understanding of the issues our environment faces.
3. Inform decision making
Knowledge gained from our research helps us set priorities for on-ground management, allocate resources to the most important actions, and identify knowledge gaps to fill by further research. Monitoring our actions and impact has enabled us to evaluate our strategies and improve them.
Our work on the land includes rebuilding viable populations of native species and restoring degraded landscapes by revegetating cleared land to increase connectivity, managing fire, and controlling feral animals and weeds. These actions are all based on the best-available science.
10-year science plan
A 10-year Science Plan (
3mb) was launched in 2015 with a focus on:
- supporting young scientists with new post-graduate scholarships, internships and placements
- establishing research projects that address key questions that will help halt biodiversity loss.
In summary, our 2015 goal was to double our capacity in science by 2025 by building and investing in collaborative research, science scholarships and fellowships, and citizen science.
We now have 69 active conservation research projects, involving 24 universities and 26 research organisations.