ILWS - Institute of Land, Water and Society
Past Events 2011
2012 / 2010 / 2009 / 2008 / 2007/ 2006 / 2005
Mistletoe menance exhibition
An exhibition featuring a selection of the botanical illustrations used in A/Prof David Watson’s first book, Mistletoes of Southern Australia was held at the Albury Library Museum, from Saturday 10 December 2011 to Sunday 12 February 2012 . The exhibition titled ‘Mistletoe Menace’ featured the work of Albury artist Robyn Hulley as well as that of textile artist Rebecca Mayo who uses mistletoes to explore ideas about women, families and values.
Pacific Reminders photographic exhibition
Through the distorted lens of art photography, an exhibition by Associate Professor Dirk Spennemann explored a personal view of many of the sites in the Pacific region which played key roles in the War with Japan between 1941 and 1945. This exhibit explored aspects of the Pacific War in a large geographic arc, spanning from Australia in the South to the wind-swept Aleutian Islands of Alaska in the North.
The exhibition was shown at the Exhibition Space of the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne from December 3, 2011 - January 15, 2012.
“Pacific Reminders” ran for six weeks over the Christmas period at the Shrine’s Exhibition Space. Over that period, the shrine had over 100,000 visitors. Not everyone would have viewed the exhibition but even if only 10% of visitors looked at the exhibition, that’s 10,000 people!
Improving Rural Livelihoods and Environments in Developing Countries Workshop
Four potential research areas were identified during a 2 day workshop for the new ILWS Improving Rural Livelihoods and Environments in Developing Countries SRA held August 30-31 at the CSU’s Albury campus. They are:
- Entrepreneurship and culture
- Improving Livelihoods for smallholders Shrimp (India/Indonesia)-Dairy (Pakistan) & Forest Products (Indonesia / Nepal)
- Global Carbon Policy and Local Livelihoods
- Integrated Research in ILWS related to developing countries: opportunities & challenges
These new areas for research will require integrated research and interdisciplinary collaboration and could develop into PhD projects or more general research projects depending on aims and funding sources.
Pic above: ILWS members and invited guests attending the workshop
The twenty-eight ILWS members who took part in the workshop were able to explore research issues and opportunities for collaboration in setting a research agenda with invited guests Dr Richard Callinan (University of Sydney), Dr Bob Fisher (University of Sydney), Dr Hem Baral (Himalayan Nature Pty Ltd). Presentations covered integrated research on community forestry, aquaculture, disaster management, foreign aid effectiveness, role of tourism and community development in Asia.
International view of managing water resources
Scientists and administrators from India visited ILWS in August 2011 to investigate how Australia is addressing the sometimes conflicting uses for limited water resources. The group, who were from Loktak in Manipur state and Chilika in
Orissa State, attended a specially-organised three day workshop at
the Albury-Wodonga campus before going on a three day field trip to visit surrounding natural and artificial wetlands.
During the workshop at the campus the Indian visitors heard presentations from Institute researchers (Prof Max Finlayson, A/Prof Robyn Watts and Prof David Mitchell) as well as presentations by Dr Daryl Nielsen, Murray-Darling Freshwater Research 
Centre, Dr Jamie Pittock, Australian National University, Patricia Bowen, Murray Catchment Management Authority, Dr Maria Bellio, University of NSW, Prof Cao Lei, University of Science and Technology of China, John Foster, DSEWPC, Dr Carmel Pollino, CSIRO, Dean Ansell, MDBA, Judy Frankenberg, Murray Wetlands Working group. A range of topics covered including wetlands and dam re-operation, managing wetlands in the future-coping with global change, and integrated river/wetland management – dams, energy and climate.
The group at Lake Cowal
After the workshop the group set off on a three day tour of wetlands to see first-hand conditions in the field. The itinerary included a visit to the Fivebough Wetlands with Mike Schultz, the Leeton sewerage treatment plant, the Narrandera Fisheries Centre , a tour of the Lake Cowal Foundation education centre, hosted by Mal Carnegie , Projects manager of the Lake Cowal Foundation and on the final day a trip through the Barmah wetlands and tour by boat along the Murray River with Keith Ward from Goulburn Murray CMA.
ILWS workshop throws spotlight on ecosystems services in the Murray-Darling Basin
Two international experts were key presenters at an ILWS-organised ecosystems services workshop in Canberra on 24-25 August .
The workshop, attended by 40 people, was funded by CSIRO, ILWS, State Water Corporation (NSW) and the MDBA . Professor Robert Johnston of Clarke University in Massachusetts and Associate Professor Dolf de Groot of Wageningen University in The Netherlands participated in a series of presentations which examined the experiences of several overseas counties in the use and valuation of ecosystems services and highlighted some of the challenges of valuing ecosystems services in Australia.
Ecosystems services are essentially the benefits we gain from natural or environmental resources and processes. They have a significant effect on human health and wellbeing, so have an economic and social value. However, differences in opinion sometimes arise when it comes to identifying which benefits to value and then quantifying these values.
Pic right Prof Mark Morrison and David Pearce
The other speakers at the workshop were Dr Steve Cork, of EcoInsights, CSIRO Research Scientist Dr Carmel Pollino, Associate Professor Gary Luck (ILWS), CSIRO Stream Leader Coastal Futures Dr Wendy Proctor, ILWS Director Professor Max Finlayson, Professor Pierre Horwitz (School of Natural Sciences, Edith Cowan University), Professor Lin Crase (La Trobe University), Dr Rod Duncan (ILWS), CSIRO Senior Research Scientist Dr Neville Crossman, ANU Adjunct Professor Dr Neil Byron, CSIRO Postdoctoral Fellow Shuang Liu, UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures Research Director Dr Roel Plant, ANU Director of International Programs for the UNESCO Chair in Water Economics and Transboundary Water Governance Dr Jamie Pittock, and The Centre for International Economics, Executive Director, David Pearce.
A major theme of the presentations and two roundtable discussions was the importance of economists, ecologists and sociologists working together to help refine and improve methods for identifying and valuing ecosystems services. To date, inter-disciplinary differences, particularly in approaches to valuing benefits, has resulted in limited inter-disciplinary collaboration. 
Photo right A/Prof Dolf de Groot from Wageningen University had the opportunity to catch up with one of his Masters students Ms Hiyoba Ghirmay, from Eritrea, who is living in Australia and working for CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences (Adelaide)
The two-day workshop was held at a time when Australia’s Murray Darling Basin Authority is assessing the likely social and economic impacts on local communities of options for its sustainable diversion limits for the basin. Several staff from the MDBA attended the workshop and Tony Webster, the Authority’s General Manager Social Economic Analysis, spoke about this assessment process.
"To my mind the purpose of this workshop was to bring together the experts from around the country... to see how much we really know, and how quickly that can be pulled together in a way that will help inform better decisions". Dr Jamie Pittock, ANU. Photo Left
CSU researchers are currently working with the CSIRO to complete a project entitled ‘Multiple Benefits of the MDBA Basin Plan’, which will include an outline of some ecosystems services benefits to Basin communities.
Why is the direct role of plants and water in the climate change debate ignored?
Visiting international academic, Dr Jan Pokorný, has been on a mission to have plants and how they cycle water, brought forward in the climate change debate.
While he understands why carbon emissions have come to the forefront of the debate and doesn’t dispute the fact they are one of the causes of climate change, he believes the critical role plants have in distributing solar energy and equalizing temperature extremes is being overlooked and under emphasised.
" When you do the scientific numbers, the effect of greenhouse gases on climate change is nothing compared to the energy fluxes when you remove vegetation,” says Jan, who was in Australia for three weeks in March as a visitor to the Institute.
And, going by his presentations at special seminars in Canberra and Thurgoona in March, he and his colleagues have the scientific facts and figures to back up their argument. (Presentation)
His presentation at CSIRO on Tuesday 22 March was to a group of twenty five and included scientists, members of farming organisations and the International Scientific Research Panel for Natural Sequence Farming including former governer general Major General Michael Jeffery.
Wednesday 23 March more than twenty ILWS researchers, students and members of the public gathered for his presentation at the CSU Thurgoona Campus.
Dr Pokorný is a plant physiologist and wetland ecologist from the Czech Republic who has most recently been researching the role of the plant-water cycle in climate change mitigation and why its significance is largely ignored in the political-scientific discourse on climate change.
He has co-authored a book called "Water for Recovery of the Climate" (www.waterparadigm.org) and also directs ENKI, a public benefit corporation focussed on applied research of environmental issues (http://www.enki.cz/index.php?l=en).
A Climate Change Workshop
More than 60 people attended an ILWS workshop in Canberra on March 2 to hear several prominent speakers, including an academic named as one of the world’s 75 most influential people, address two key questions relating to climate change.
Adjunct Professor Bjørn Lomborg, an economist at Denmark’s Copenhagen Business School and the Institute Director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, headed the list of speakers, who also included award-winning Canadian architect Michael Green, as well as leading economists Dr Ben McNeil (University of NSW Climate Change Centre) and the ILWS’s Dr Rod Duncan, who is based at CSU Bathurst.
(From Left A/Prof Bjørn Lomborg, Dr Rod Duncan, Michael Green, Dr Ben McNeil, Prof Mark Morrison)
The four speakers addressed two questions: “What should Australian government policy be in managing climate change? How should the Australian government build resilience into the economy and community given greater variability in climates?”
Professor Lomborg has written several books on climate change including The Skeptical Environmentalist and the new Smart Solutions to Climate Change. He focuses on the importance of technology and innovation in changing the supply/demand equation rather than more traditional mitigation strategies such as carbon pollution reduction or taxation schemes.
ILWS researcher Professor Kevin Parton, who is Head of the Orange Campus of Charles Sturt University, said the workshop was very informative.
Professor Lomborg’s main point was that we need to have governments spend money on research and development to develop green technologies. Research is relatively cheap, and the returns to this research will be significantly positive. We need to develop cheap green technology and not expensive conventional technology (as we would under a carbon price scheme).
Michael Green is the founder of mgb Architecture + Design, a firm of 30 employees specialising in environmentally sustainable design. Mr Green has a passion for designing buildings with light carbon footprints. He is particularly passionate about using sustainably grown wood products in buildings.
He told participants that he was a strong supporter of a new green technology – wooden high-rise buildings. Special wood laminates, known as LSL panels, make such buildings possible. LSL panels are made from young trees (10-12 years old) and so can be grown from rapidly renewable forests. Mr Green said Japan has numerous high-rise wooden buildings, including a 19-storey building dating back 1,400 years. The only thing preventing the development of such buildings in most cities in the world today was unnecessarily restrictive local building regulations, he said.
Dr McNeil, who is a senior research fellow with the UNSW’s Climate Change Research Centre, argued that Australia needed to encourage new green industries which would be able to compete in international markets. At the moment, Australia effectively had ‘protected carbon’ and this was discouraging the development of new green technologies.
Dr Duncan’s key point was that humans are very bad predictors of the future. Dr Duncan, who is the leader of the ILWS’s Ecosystems Services Strategic Research Area, argued that there was no reason to believe that predictions 
of climate change will be any more accurate than many previous predictions that have proved wildly inaccurate. He also argued that there was no reason to believe that we could make good predictions about the likely course of future green technology.
However, Dr Duncan said we could expect some form of new technology to develop in response to climate change, so we needed to act to establish the best conditions under which innovation and invention could most easily take place. The workshop was chaired by ILWS researcher Professor Mark Morrison.
Participants included numerous public servants from the Federal Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, , as well as many economists and academics from the University of Canberra and the Australian National University.
Mistletoes of Southern Australia Book Launch
The venue chosen for the launch of A/Prof David Watson’s first book Mistletoes of Southern Australia and an exhibition of 25 of the botanical illustrations featured in the book proved to be ideal…good lighting, plenty of space and a lovely park-like setting.
Around 100 people gathered at Domain House, adjacent to Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens, late Friday afternoon, February 25 to celebrate David and artist Robyn Hulley’s combined achievement.
A/Prof David Watson and Robyn Hulley
The book, which has been published by CSIRO Publishing, is a comprehensive guide to half of Australia’s 91 known mistletoe species. It contains over 100 color photographs (many taken by David, a keen photographer) and 51 of Robyn’s watercolour illustrations. 
The book represents the first thorough treatment of mistletoes in Australia and is the first ‘field guide’ to mistletoes world-wide. It provides an up-to-date summary of the biology, ecology and management of mistletoes in Australia.
Institute adjuncts Barney Foran and David Roshier
The book was launched by the CEO of Birds Australia, Dr Graeme Hamilton, who praised the work and said he was looking forward to reading the book and learning more about mistletoes. Both David and Robyn spoke on their experiences in creating the book.
A/Prof David Watson and
one of his
former PhD students Dr Anna Burns
Also at the venue was an exhibition of work by Rebecca Mayo, a mixed media artist and print-maker whose work features mistletoes. On display were two garments Rebecca has made using fabric printed with a mistletoe motif and mistletoe dyes.
Book sales on the evening were handled by volunteers from the Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne with profits going back to the group.
The book has a recommended retail price of A$49.95 from bookstores, order online from CSIRO Publishing or call 1300 788 000.
Artist Rebecca Mayo