Author Archive

Burnett-Mary Water Quality Improvement Plan

Over the past two years Natural Decisions has worked on a number of significant projects related to improving water quality in the Great Barrier Reef region. One of these was assisting the Burnett-Mary Regional Group (BMRG), at the southern end of the reef where it adjoins Fraser Island and the Great Sandy Straits. To help protect ecosystem […]

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Posted 30 June 2015 in News

Public Goods and Externalities: Agri-environmental Policy Measures in Australia

David Pannell and Anna Roberts have written a paper summarising public good and externality issues from an Australian case-study perspective for the OECD (Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development). Their paper along with accompanying case studies covering Japan, Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States will provide inputs into an OECD ‘Public Goods, Externalities and Agri-environmental […]

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Posted 22 June 2015 in News

A visit to the Waikato

I’ve just returned from a week in New Zealand working with the Waikato River Authority (WRA) and partner organisations, including Dairy NZ and the Waikato Regional Council, exploring the application of INFFER to project prioritisation to the Waipa catchment, one of a number of major sub-regions for the Waikato. Like many other environmental organisations the WRA […]

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Posted 15 June 2015 in News

Welcome back Anna

We are pleased to welcome back Anna Roberts to Australia and she has now started working full-time with Natural Decisions. Anna has been based in the United States working in Annapolis Maryland where she led the re-structuring and transition of a not-for-profit science-based company in the Chesapeake Bay Chesapeake Bay region. Anna is now leading […]

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Posted 14 May 2015 in News

Water quality planning in the NQ Dry Tropics

Since launching Natural Decisions in July 2013 we have worked extensively on water quality projects concerning the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland. Firstly with the Burnett-Mary Regional Group, coordinating their Water Quality Improvement Plan (WQIP), and then with Terrain NRM providing supporting work involving INFFER for the Wet Tropics WQIP.  Both of these projects have […]

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Posted 12 May 2015 in News

Agility, flexibility and reality in future climate change planning

In recent months Natural Decisions has been working with a number of Victorian CMAs; East Gippsland, North Central and West Gippsland, to assist with their development of regional climate change adaptation and mitigation plans. A fascinating aspect of this work has been applying what is known as an ‘Adaptation Pathways’ approach. Given the uncertainty around […]

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Posted 21 March 2015 in News

Diffuse source water pollution in Australia and the US – a comparative law perspective

Natural Decisions colleague, Anna Roberts, together with Robin Kundis Craig (William H. Leary Professor of Law at the University of Utah) have just had published a new paper that presents a comparative law view of nonpoint source/diffuse source water pollution issues in the US and Australia. Titled “When Will Governments Regulate Nonpoint Source Pollution? A […]

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Posted 30 January 2015 in News

Paying farmers for environmental stewardship

Recently I participated in an interesting workshop in Canberra, organised to discuss the effectiveness of agri-environment schemes in delivering conservation outcomes in Australia. ‘Paying farmers for biodiversity – agri-environment schemes in Australia’ involved  ecologists, economists, managers and policy-makers from around the country, and was organised by three early career researchers, Fiona Gibson (UWA) together with David […]

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Posted 20 December 2014 in News

Listening to the community about seasonal variability and climate change.

Over recent weeks Natural Decisions, together with Scarlet Consulting, has been discussing climate change and climate variability with people across North Central Victoria. This work is part of assisting the North Central CMA to develop a Carbon Action Plan for north-central Victoria, with funding from the Australian Government. To inform this plan the North Central […]

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Posted 24 November 2014 in News

Decisions, metrics and ‘bang for buck’

The latest edition of Decision Point, the monthly magazine of the Environmental Decisions Group (EDG), has a series of articles on environmental decision making. Two of these focus on matters associated with decision metrics and investment evaluation. The first, by Fiona Gibson and David Pannell, focuses on the importance of using robust decision metrics to underpin sound […]

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Posted 15 September 2014 in News