Final Report Landscapes and Policy Hub 2011-2015

In 2011, the Landscapes and Policy Hub set out to answer the question ‘How do we take a regional scale view of biodiversity?’

In consultation with the federal Department of the Environment, the hub applied a big picture view to two regions, the Australian Alps and the Tasmanian Midlands. The first step in the research process was to take the 36 researchers in a bus and visit the two regions. By talking to residents, land owners, managers and local experts the researchers had the opportunity to see the issues first hand. They then went to work in seven research teams specialising in social and institutional issues, climate change, biogeography, economics, wildlife, fire and freshwater ecology. An eighth team, communication and integration, took on the task of keeping the researchers in touch with each other and their wider audiences.

Every six months the researchers met to swap notes. In February 2015, they publically released the products of efforts, the website Life at Large. The website contains the six step process that emerged from the case studies (see www.lifeatlarge.edu.au).