New Work on Ecological Principles from the WildCountry Project
Earth Charter Council Member Brendan Mackey has published a vital work on the principles of landscape ecology, with a focus on a remarkable project in Australia. The work is available as a chapter of the book Key Topics in Landscape Ecology, and it’s title is ”Applying landscape-ecological principles to regional conservation: the wildcountry project in Australia.” Landscape ecology is about understanding the pattern of interaction of biological and cultural communities in a region.
Like with the Earth Charter, principles play a large role in this study and in the WildCountry project, as it is called. WildCountry emphasizes the value of voluntary partnerships between a wide range of stakeholders, and particularly highlights the value of NGOs. Where governments are constrained by inertia, vested interests, or prior policy decisions, NGOs have flexibility. Through this multi-party approach to conservation, agricultural and pastoral systems can come closer to sustainability. But success will depend on having strong engagement with local communities and education, and especially on having strong scientific components of a strategy. (Photo1: 'Brendan Mackey and a giant termite mound on a recent field trip to Arnhem Land Northern Australia' by Charles Tambiah & the ANU WildCountry Research & Policy Hub)
A main theme of Mackey’s research is Ecological Integrity. Landscape ecosystems are important to life support on a global scale, and Mackey studies the significance of carbon and water cycles, among other ecology, for global life support. He often focuses on the ways that human use of land affects ecology, as well as the importance of genetic diversity and natural selection for maintaining ecological systems—and what happens when we replace natural processes with human-designed management systems.
Current research projects include surveying traditional owners of Aboriginal land in Northern Australia about the conservation status of native mammals, and investigating the challenges of conserving highly mobile ‘nomadic’ bird species. Another recent publication of his that focusses on the application of landscape ecology principles to conservation and development is the report entitled "The Nature of Northern Australia: its natural values, ecological processes and future prospects" (available online at
http://epress.anu.edu.au/nature_na_citation.html).
Brendan is a Professor of environment science at at The Australian National University (ANU). He is also Director of the ANU WildCountry Research and Policy Hub. He has worked as a research scientist with the CSIRO and the Canadian Forest Service. In addition to his essential role as a member of the Earth Charter International Council, Brendan co-chairs the IUCN (World Conservation Union) Ethics Specialist Group. (Photo2: 'Brendan Mackey hard at work on a recent field trip to Arnhem Land in Northern Australia' by Charles Tambiah & the ANU WildCountry Research & Policy Hub)