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Home Multidisciplinary approaches to key Australian biodiversity challenges of 2010 and beyondSummary below; for further information, see the EFN Network web page, http://www.ees.adelaide.edu.au/nesuab/main.html. Project/Working Group Convenors:
Dan Faith, The Australian Museum http://www.amonline.net.au/systematics/staff_faith.htm OverviewAims
Selected specifics:
BackgroundAustralia's 2010 target is"a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss". Limitations of conventional indicators for 2010 now require"broadening the science" (Science 2010 essay). The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment argues: "Biodiversity surrogates based upon best possible use of a combination of environmental and species... data may provide greater certainty in estimating biodiversity patterns. Such a 'calculus'; of global and regional biodiversity may allow biodiversity targets to be formulated in ways that integrate socioeconomic factors" and "may provide one pathway for addressing ... the 2010 biodiversity target". The research challenge is to 1) develop a biodiversity calculus integrating best-possible use of available biotic and environmental data, and 2) link this to socio-economic factors, to address the 2010 target, plus other climate and land-use change pressures. Exploring novel, multidisciplinary, approaches to 2010-target assessment (e.g., http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/eletters/307/5707/212#1272 ) requires building on current opportunities to bring together exciting developments in different disciplines, e.g.:
Project DescriptionOur network project will address biodiversity scenarios relating to the 2010 target plus other land-use and climate change pressures at the scale of continental Australia. It brings together workers on #1 and #2 above, plus much related work. Information complementing biotic data of museums and related data bases includes: AGO's 12 snapshots since 1972 of detailed land-cover change for Australia, and national environmental audit information and ANU climate data providing environmental layers for surrogate-building. Addressing stated Aims is based on networking scientists across disciplines of biodiversity, climate change/ carbon accounting, remote sensing, land-use planning, systematics/biogeography, and environmental/economic audits. Early workshops will focus on synthesis of existing data, analytical frameworks, and software. Later workshops will discuss pilot analyses and grant preparation. Project results will be presented at an international symposium focused on the project, at ICSEB 2008.
Working group members (initial group) Progress and activities, late 2005, 2006Activities in the 1st year addressed Australia's biodiversity and its management through its focus on the core goal to address biodiversity scenarios relating to the 2010 target plus other land-use and climate change pressures at the scale of continental Australia. The meetings and interactions have already led to some developments of new analytical approaches. The paragraphs below highlight some of the outputs, achievements, and collaborations. Two planned meetings to progress the working group were completed in late 2005 - discussions and presentations were made at the First DIVERSITAS Open Science Conference: "Integrating biodiversity science for human well-being", 9-12 November, Oaxaca, Mexico, and at the Conference of the Australian Entomological Society/Invertebrate Biodiversity and Conservation /Australian Systematics Society, Canberra, Australia, 4-9 December (see below). Two planned meetings to progress the working group were completed in 2006. The large meeting, in June in Sydney allowed presentations on a wide range of topics linked to the objectives (see Agenda listed below). Progress was made in plans for a continental scale GDM model for Australia with links to AGO data. DEH indicated funding input for this effort. The follow-up Armidale meeting (see below) worked through the details of a work plan for GDM models. Meanwhile, the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) has established a “Biodiversity Indicators Partnership, and their web site now links to 2010 working group, as an emerging case study: http://www.twentyten.net/initiatives.htm Williams, Margules, Slatyer, Roseaur, Faith, Pert, and other members of the working group presented progress on the proposal for a new eastern Australian global hotspot that the group plus others has been preparing over the past two years, with DEC, DEH, and CSIRO. Progress on this proposal is now coordinated through the 2010 working group. The proposal for a symposium, involving several working group members, on conservation and phylogenetic diversity, at the 2007 meetings of the Society for Systematic Biology was accepted, resulting also in a grant of $5000. (Evolution 2007 will be held June 16th - 21st in Christchurch, New Zealand, at the Canterbury Convention Centre. see http://www.evolution2007.com/ ) Three members collaboratively were speakers at the WWF conference in Perth on conservation planning, co-presented with CSIRO and DEC a vision for planning in hotspots. Other efforts in the first year focused on expanding communication. Five members of the working group joined a U.S-based “blog” on systematic conservation planning, in which the EFN working group’s activities and strategy for 2010 were advertised. Dan Faith completed a review for UNEP of the 2010 scenarios report from the Global Biodiversity Outlook 2. Members of the working group (Yeates, Faith, Ferrier, Slatyer) formed the Australian coordinating committee for DIVERSITAS – “By linking biology, ecology and social sciences, DIVERSITAS produces socially relevant new knowledge to support sustainable use of biodiversity." Dan Faith was selected to be a member of the International Scientific Committee which will direct the new Core Project within DIVERSITAS called BioGENESIS - a program linking biodiversity, evolution and systematics Members of the working group produced a first 2010 case study by building on existing funding and work through Conservation International: Daniel P. Faith, Kristen J. Williams, Susan E. Cameron, David K. Mitchell and Chris Margules Systematic Conservation Planning and the 2010 Biodiversity Target: integrating biodiversity and socio-economic factors in Papua New Guinea, to appear in Global Environmental Change: Human and Policy Dimensions Working group meetings and abstracts/reports
Other working group publications:
Background information Links
The 2010 biodiversity target "In decision VI/26 the Conference of the Parties adopted the Strategic Plan for the Convention on Biological Diversity. In its mission statement, Parties committed themselves to a more effective and coherent implementation of the three objectives of the Convention, to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on earth. This target was subsequently endorsed by the World Summit on Sustainable Development. In decision VII/30 the Conference of the Parties adopted a framework to facilitate the assessment of progress towards 2010 and communication of this assessment, to promote coherence among the programmes of work of the Convention and to provide a flexible framework within which national and regional targets may be set, and indicators identified. The framework includes seven focal areas. The Conference of the Parties identified indicators for assessing progress towards, and communicating the 2010 target at the global level, and goals and sub-targets for each of the focal areas, as well as a general approach for the integration of goals and sub-targets into the programmes of work of the Convention. Parties are invited to establish their own targets and identify indicators, within this flexible framework." (quoted from https://www.biodiv.org/2010-target/)
Australia has set a goal of achieving a significant reduction in biodiversity loss by 2010 At the 7th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (2004), Australia supported more international work to develop globally applicable indicators for countries to meet the target to 'significantly reduce the current rate of loss of biological diversity by 2010'. See http://www.deh.gov.au/about/annual-report/03-04/outcome-1-biodiversity.html Background to one approach to be considered by the EFN working group is found in: Faith, DP. 2005. Global Biodiversity Assessment: Integrating Global and Local Values and Human Dimensions. Global Environmental Change 15(1) 5-8. Download PDF. Faith, DP & Ferrier S 2005. Good news and bad news for the 2010 biodiversity target. Science Online, 6 Mar 2005[Full text]
This figure shows two land-use change curves for Panama. Both curves illustrate how a constant rate of habitat loss (horizontal axis) would imply an increasing rate of biodiversity loss (vertical axis). The lower curve is for a case where the choice of places for conversion is not balanced with conservation needs, and disproportionately targets certain habitat types. The upper curve is for a case where new human-use lands are selected so as to minimize conflict with regional biodiversity conservation. See Faith, DP & Ferrier S 2005. These proposals have been communicated to the new 2010 "Biodiversity Indicators Partnership" (www.twentyten.net). Various organizations involved in delivery of 2010 indicators have come together in the 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership, which is convened by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, acting in support of the CBD Secretariat.
DNA Barcoding A DNA "barcode" based on cytochrome c oxidase I ('COI') has been proposed as a way to dramatically boost the species discovery together with documentation of species distribution information (see The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL), www.barcodinglife.com). Such an approach assumes that some standard, short, region of a gene can distinguish among different species over a wide range of taxonomic groups. The Barcode of Life Data bank (BoLD; see http://www.barcoding.si.edu/index_detail.htm) illustrates the potential for an extensive barcoding data base for biodiversity assessment, with links to species names, museum voucher specimens, phylogenetic relationships, and geographic distribution information.
Carbon accounting toolbox National Carbon Accounting Toolbox CD - a set of tools for tracking greenhouse gas emissions and carbon stock changes from land use and management, including the FullCAM modelling software and Data Builder. Data Viewer DVD - a unique 30-year visual record of landscape and vegetation change in Australia since 1972, as seen through 5 national snapshots of Landsat satellite data. DIVERSITAS"Integrating biodiversity science for human well-being. By linking biology, ecology and social sciences, DIVERSITAS produces socially relevant new knowledge to support sustainable use of biodiversity." See http://www.diversitas-international.org/ The Australian National Committee for DIVERSITAS now has EFN network (and 2010 working group) members, Faith and Yeates. Participants at the First DIVERSITAS Open Science Conference: "Integrating biodiversity science for human well-being" called for a properly resourced international panel on biodiversity. (Oaxaca declaration )
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment The 2006 Global Biodiversity Outlook 2 (see www.biodiv.org/GBO2) treats various aspects of the 2010 Target, and draws upon the Biodiversity Synthesis results.
Early career researchers
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