News and Events
The Institute for Land, Water and Society publishes an electronic newsletter "Connections" which features informative stories about ILWS members and their research projects four times a year.
The Institute also conducts regular workshops, conferences, forums, public seminars and information evenings. The aim of these events is to disseminate scientific knowledge, enhancing the capacity of partners and the wider community to contribute effectively to processes addressing rural and regional sustainability.
ILWS members feature in Science Alert
Institute adjunct research fellow Barney Foran (link to profile on CSU Media) and ecologist Dr Paul Humphries both had their views published in the on-line news service Science Alert. Barney's piece “Regional areas must seize control of greener future” was in response to the Government's new green paper, and Paul's piece “The drought we had to have?” puts forward the view that perhaps the drought is a blessing in disguise as it has forced us to face up to the problems in our environment that have been developing for decades. The editor of Science Alert Julian Cribbs is encouraging Institute members to comment on these pieces.
Deforestation in the Tropics: Causes, Policies, and Institutions
Richard Culas frrom the School of Agricultural and Wine Studies has released a new book "Deforestation in the tropics: Causes, Policies and Institutions". Climate change is a contemporary issue. In the context of rapidly changing climate patterns, deforestation in the tropics is a major issue of global concern because of the value tropical forests have in limiting the greenhouse effect and in conserving biodiversity. Deforestation has also many ecological and socio-economic effects at local and global levels. Many economic models attempt at explaining the causes of deforestation. Against such a background, this book provides two perspectives: (1) an informed account of the causes of deforestation at different levels of economy and reviews and discussions on certain non-forest sector policies, global environmental markets and biodiversity conservation; (2) this book analyses using four categories on the direct, intermediate and underlying and/or policy-oriented causes for deforestation using data from regions from Latin America, Africa and Asia. Overall, this book provides aspects of policies and institutions for sustainable management of forest resources and for achieving environmental stability.
VDM Publishing, Saarbrücken, Germany.
http://www.amazon.com/Deforestation-Tropics-Richard-J-Culas/dp/3639032608
2020 Summit
Congratulations to Prof Marg Alston who was selected to attend the Australian 2020 Summit in Canberra on April 19 and 20. Prof Alston will be part of the "future directions for rural industries and communities" group. More...
Grassy Woodlands Grant
A/Prof Ian Lunt and Dr Suzanne Prober (ex ILWS now CSIRO) have received $112,000 from the NSW Environmental Trust Research Grant Scheme for a new three year project to develop 'integrated strategies for restoring grassing woodlands.' The funding adds to a $85,600 contribution to the project from the Murray CMA.
Ian Lunt stated that, 'this is a really exciting project that will radically expand our understanding of how we can restore degraded woodland understoreys'.