NEWS : The Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute

November 2011: PhD Scholarship Opportunity - The ecology and policy of wild dog management in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area (GBMWHA)

The Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute (BMWHI) has a PhD project available to investigate the behavioural ecology of wild dogs in the Greater Blue Mountains of NSW. Wild dogs include dingoes (Canis lupus dingo), feral domestic dogs (C. l. familiaris), and their hybrids. As well as field-based ecological research, this project will attend to the broader policy-related issues including the range of stakeholder perspectives influencing decision-making for local wild dog management. The project will seek to provide critical information that can assist land managers.

The successful applicant will need to secure an Australian Postgraduate Award and will be offered a top-up by the Institute of $10,000 p.a. for 3 years.

Wild dog management that integrates biodiversity conservation with livestock production is a major ecological and socio-political challenge in Australia, as it is for wild carnivores worldwide. While dingoes have partial protection in select areas of the GBMWHA, they are culled near the boundary of the reserve where they threaten livestock production. The GBMWHA has an extensive border with agricultural lands as well as a significant urban interface. As such, the presence of wild dogs in this region presents conflict with both rural and urban communities. One of the research aims will be to compare the behaviour of undisturbed dingoes in the core of the reserve with those subject to control near boundaries with pastoral and urban land. Specific research questions will be developed in consultation with the supervisors, BMWHI and relevant land managers and wild dog management groups.

The position would suit someone with a First Class Honours (in biological science or related field) and a keen interest (prior experience not required) in sociology and policy processes. The student will be based in the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Western Sydney under the supervision of Professor Robert Mulley and co-supervision of Dr Rosalie Chapple (BMWHI). Fieldwork would be primarily conducted in core areas in the southern part of the reserve and in the control zone along the south-western boundary, and at the urban interface of the Blue Mountains. An ability to work in remote locations is a necessary pre-requisite, as well as engaging with a diverse range of stakeholders.

Expressions of Interest should be submitted as soon as possible.
For further information and to apply, please email a cover letter with a CV and contact details for two referees, to Dr Rosalie Chapple (r.chapple@bmwhi.org.au; ph 02-9385 5653) at the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute.

Building Natural World Heritage Capacity in Asia in the face of Climate Change
23 – 25th September, Suncheon city, Korea

This workshop focused on two practical approaches central to the future of Natural World Heritage properties in the face of a changing climate in Asia:

The need for comprehensive vulnerability assessments to identify potential threats to the integrity and values of the sites. These assessments need to be based on a thorough review of the potential impact of climate change on site values in order to identify effective management responses.
The need to develop appropriate adaptive management frameworks to promote a culture of iterative values-based management which protects Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) as it is termed under the World Heritage Convention. These frameworks need to be tailored to ensure effective science-based monitoring and evaluation programmes which set appropriate standards and in turn trigger timely management responses.

BMWHI was given the opportunity to share the learning and experience from the Greater Blue Mountains with other World Heritage sites in Asia and the international community. BMWHI Research Manager, Peter Shadie, organised the meeting in his capacity as IUCN Senior Advisor, World Heritage and he invited Dr. Daniel Ramp, formerly with UNSW and now with UTS (both BMWHI members) who presented the work done in the Managing Ecosystem Change in the GBMWHA Project as one of the case studies on vulnerability assessments.

Our GBMWHA project showcased how sophisticated computer modelling can help identify the likely impacts of climate change on ecosystems - for example, through identifying climate change refugia both inside and outside the current WHA - and highlighted the Importance of science informing policy & management.

conducting a pan-Asia scale vulnerability assessment to identify those natural World Heritage sites most at risk;
developing a number of pilot Climate Change Learning Sites to showcase adaptive management and response strategies and then share this learning;
creating a network of World Heritage and Climate Change expertise in Asia.

BMWHI hopes to see the work done in the GBMWHA expanded and taken up as part of policy development and management planning. This will be crucial for building a more resilient system in the face of climate change.

BMWHI and the Office of Environment & Heritage (National Parks & Wildlife Division) recently co-hosted another in the series of BMWHI Research Forums which aim to bring together researchers, managers and policy makers around critical issues for the conservation of the GBMWHA. More than 30 participants spent an afternoon on August 2nd 2011 at the Blue Mountains Heritage Centre in Blackheath, focusing on diverse issues and threats to the future of the GBMWHA.

Presenters from left to right: Cheryle Yin-Lo, Michelle Barton, Rosalie Chapple

Presenters from various Universities and institutions showcased their work on a broad range of issues including:

Interactions between native & introduced predators in the Greater Blue Mountains
Valuing the ecosystem services of carbon storage and water
Assessing the potential for bioenergy from native agroforestry
Documenting instances of & managing the problem of Phythophthora
Creative Arts as a catalyst for community environmental stewardship

The Forums are an important opportunity to share learning on current research and to foster a healthy dialogue between researchers, land managers and policy makers. A key role for BMWHI is to address how the research can be taken up by managers to inform their on-the-ground activities.

Presenters from left to right: Floret Parker, Peter Shadie, Michelle Barton, Zoe-Joy Newby

The Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute is actively pursuing an initiative to reduce the carbon footprint of the Blue Mountains tourism industry and position the mountains as a low-carbon tourism destination.

The project idea emerged from a recent Futures Forum (pictured below) involving an impressive panel of influential thinkers, including former premier Bob Carr, science journalist Robyn Williams and veteran environmentalist Penny Figgis.

“This Futures Forum opened up a robust dialogue on how to better promote the values of the Blue Mountains to the wider community and how to strengthen understanding about the intimate connections between humans and their environment,” said Institute Executive Director Dr Rosalie Chapple.

“A consortium of interests has now formed under the leadership of the BMWHI to take the project forward and seek partnerships in the Blue Mountains business and wider community.”

Key partners so far include Blue Mountains Tourism Ltd, the NSW National Parks and Wildife Service under the Office of Environment and Heritage, Blue Mountains City Council, the UNSW Institute of Environmental Studies, Finity Consulting, and Greenlight Technology Group.

The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area (GBMWHA) is internationally recognised for its outstanding natural values. The area is threatened by a number of factors including climate change, which looms as potentially the greatest threat to the ecological integrity of this area. The Blue Mountains is also the most popular regional tourist destination in Australia, annually receiving approximately 4 million visitors and generating nearly $500m. Tourism is responsible for almost 6% of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

The Blue Mountains Low-Carbon Tourism Initiative acknowledges the connection between the tourism industry and the protection of the values of the World Heritage Area and a crucial outcome of the project will be returning benefits to the natural values of the GBMWHA.

“While there are many examples of nature-based, sustainable or eco-tourism, there are few specific to reducing carbon emissions,” Dr Chapple said.

“Boosting the tourism sector in the region through times of rising energy costs to run financially rewarding operations while safeguarding the very ecosystems the industry relies heavily on has tremendous potential benefits for many different stakeholders. The key to decreasing a destination’s carbon footprint is to carefully plan its carbon reduction program. Transportation, accommodation, and facilities should focus on mitigating their emissions while they adapt to changing climate conditions.

“Our aim is for this project to become a model that can be adopted by other tourist centres around Australia and the world.”

The Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute has introduced three Flagship Programs in 2011, the aim being to focus research and enhance community and sponsor engagement. The Flagship Programs are holistic, landscape-scale concepts that tackle complex socio-economic and ecosystem challenges for the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. Read more >>