Suchergebnisse

The Murray–Darling Basin Plan is a $AU 13 billion program to return water from irrigation use to the environment. Central to the success of the Plan, commenced in 2012, is the implementation of an Environmentally Sustainable Level of Take (ESLT) and a Sustainable Diversion Limit (SDL) on the volume of water that can be taken for consumptive use. Under the enabling legislation, the Water Act (2007), the ESLT and SDL must be set by the "best available science." In 2009, the volume of water to maintain wetlands and rivers of the Basin was estimated at 3000–7600 GL per year. Since then, there has been a steady step-down in this volume to 2075 GL year due to repeated policy adjustments, including "supply measures projects," building of infrastructure to obtain the same environmental outcomes with less water. Since implementation of the Plan, return of water to the environment is falling far short of targets. The gap between the volume required to maintain wetlands and rivers and what is available is increasing with climate change and other risks, but the Plan makes no direct allowance for climate change. We present policy options that address the need to adapt to less water and re-frame the decision context from contestation between water for irrigation versus the environment. Options include best use of water for adaptation and structural adjustment packages for irrigation communities integrated with environmental triage of those wetlands likely to transition to dryland ecosystems under climate change.

Changes in surface water availability for the environment (inflows minus diversions; highlighted in grey) in the Murray-Darling Basin (GL yr-1), calculated from inflow and diversion data in CSIRO (2008) and MDBA (2012). CSIRO (2008) Water Availability in the Murray-Darling Basin. A report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Murray-Darling Basin Sustainable Yields Project. CSIRO, Canberra. Available at: http://www.csiro.au/science/MDBSY.html MDBA (2012) Hydrologic Modelling to Inform the Proposed Basin Plan: Methods and Results. MDBA Publication No. 17/12. Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Canberra.

AbstractAs the impacts of climate change and water demands from irrigation continue to increase in the Murray–Darling Basin, water for the environment is becoming more scarce and the ecological conditions of many wetlands is poor. With water scarcity, conservation triage is becoming an increasingly relevant management option for environmental watering of wetlands. However, triage is controversial; being considered contrary to current conservation objectives and practices. We assessed environmental watering at two Ramsar wetlands, Macquarie Marshes and Gunbower Forest, based on international environmental treaty obligations and domestic policy settings, changes to flow regimes, wetland condition and current management. Triage decision making was found to be in tacit use at Macquarie Marshes, based on 'rules of thumb' and experiential ecohydrological knowledge, whereas formal environmental watering planning formed the basis for triage decision making at Gunbower Forest. We developed a framework for conservation triage of wetlands in the Murray–Darling Basin to stimulate change in the decision context for wetland conservation and adaptation under climate change. Conservation triage entails reframing of relationships between people and nature and values, rules and knowledge used by stakeholders. Because water is the medium by which wetland conservation outcomes eventuate, trade-offs between competing water uses can be realised with the triage framework.

Nature-based solutions are receiving increasing attention in the water management sector. There is a growing interest and awareness of the value of managing, conserving and restoring ecosystems for their role in regulating water and protecting watersheds. In the Peruvian mountains, some adaptation projects and programs emphasize nature-based solutions but face multiple challenges, for example the lack of knowledge on the effectiveness of such solutions and the diverging opinions on their relevance among decision-makers. In those projects, stakeholders have diverse interests in the implementation of nature-based solutions, in part because of their different interactions with ecosystem services. Using mixed methods, this study analyses options for adaptation and water management in the Andes in Peru. We propose a critical analysis of decision contexts on adaptation and water management and the implications of adaptation options on ecosystem services and equity. We identify different doctrines and preferences for technological or ecosystem-based options and relate them to stakeholder worldviews. The contrasting discourses on whether adaptation should be based on ecosystems or infrastructure can be associated with different conceptions of equity and different opinions on the role of government, communities and the private sector in water management. We also explore whether some options are favoured by decision rules and power relations. Analysing the interactions between stakeholders and ecosystem services and understanding the trade-offs between ecosystem services can help explain the different positions in favour or against nature-based solutions. This research highlights the importance of power relationships in adaptation decision-making, as such relationships favour the values and knowledge of some stakeholders and give priority of their preferred adaptation options.

Globally, anthropogenic environmental change is exacerbating the already vulnerable conditions of many people and ecosystems. In order to obtain food, water, raw materials and shelter, rural people modify forests and other ecosystems, affecting the supply of ecosystem services that contribute to livelihoods and well-being. Despite widespread awareness of the nature and extent of multiple impacts of land-use changes, there remains limited understanding of how these impacts affect trade-offs among ecosystem services and their beneficiaries across spatial scales. We assessed how rural communities in two forested landscapes in Indonesia have changed land uses over the last 20 years to adapt their livelihoods that were at risk from multiple hazards. We estimated the impact of these adaptation strategies on the supply of ecosystem services by comparing different benefits provided to people from these land uses (products, water, carbon, and biodiversity), using forest inventories, remote sensing, and interviews. Local people converted forests to rubber plantations, reforested less productive croplands, protected forests on hillsides, and planted trees in gardens. Our results show that land-use decisions were propagated at the landscape scale due to reinforcing loops, whereby local actors perceived that such decisions contributed positively to livelihoods by reducing risks and generating co-benefits. When land-use changes become sufficiently widespread, they affect the supply of multiple ecosystem services, with impacts beyond the local scale. Thus, adaptation implemented at the local-scale may not address development and climate adaptation challenges at regional or national scale (e.g. as part of UN Sustainable Development Goals or actions taken under the UNFCCC Paris Agreement). A better understanding of the context and impacts of local ecosystem-based adaptation is fundamental to the scaling up of land management policies and practices designed to reduce risks and improve well-being for people at different scales.

Scientists working on ecosystem service (ES) science are engaged in a mission-driven discipline. They can contribute to science-policy interfaces where knowledge is co-produced and used. How scientists engage with the governance arena to mobilise their knowledge remains a matter of personal choice, influenced by individual values. ES science cannot be considered neutral and a discussion of the values that shape it forms an important part of the sustainability dialogue. We propose a simple decision tree to help ES scientists identify their role and the purpose of the knowledge they produce. We characterise six idealised scientific postures spanning possible roles at the science-policy interface (pure scientist, science arbiter—guarantor, issue advocate—guardian, officer, honest broker and stealth issue advocate) and illustrate them with feedbacks from interviews. We encourage ES scientists to conduct a reflexive exploration of their attitudes regarding knowledge production and use, with the intention of progressing toward a higher recognition of the political and ethical importance of ES assessments.

Evaluating different environmental policy options requires extensive modelling of biophysical processes and attributes linked with metrics to measure the magnitude and distribution of societal impacts. An integrated ecosystem services assessment (IESA) has potential to provide salient, credible and legitimate information for environmental policy- and decision-makers. Here we present results of an IESA of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, an Australian Government initiative to restore aspects of river flow regimes to improve the ecological condition of floodplains, rivers and wetlands in south-eastern Australia. The main outcome from the IESA is that the supply of most ecosystem services (ES) improves under Basin Plan policy and that these improvements have considerable monetary value. An IESA can provide actionable ecological, economic and social information for policy- and decision-makers. In the Basin Plan case the IESA was underpinned by hydrological scenarios that were input into ecological models and interdisciplinary integration across scales, values and variables.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are receiving increasing attention for adapting to change climate and reducing its impacts on water resources. There is a growing interest and awareness of the value of managing, conserving and restoring ecosystems for their role in regulating water, protecting soils and increasing the resilience of social–ecological systems in watersheds. In the Peruvian mountains, some adaptation programs emphasize NBS options, such as the conservation of cloud forests, the restoration of forest cover, and the conservation or restoration of wetlands and grasslands. At the same time, other adaptation programs focus on technological and infrastructure options based on bricks-and-mortar, such as dams, reservoirs and water treatment facilities. In between, traditional options have been used for centuries by local communities to address water problems by combining NBS and small-scale infrastructure. The different options have a potential for providing water adaptation benefits but they differ greatly, for example, in terms of equity (e.g. when a dam benefits mostly urban and powerful actors) and co-benefits (e.g. scenic beauty, carbon sequestration or wild plant supply). Decision-making on adaptation options is challenging because of the lack of knowledge on the effectiveness of different solutions and because of the diverging opinions on their relevance among decision-makers. Using mixed methods, this study analyzes options for adaptation and water management in the Andes in Peru. We propose a critical analysis of decision contexts and the implications of adaptation options for ecosystem services and equity. We identify different doctrines and preferences for technological or NBS options and relate them to stakeholder worldviews. The contrasting discourses on adaptation options can be associated with different conceptions of equity and different opinions on the role of government, communities and the private sector in water management. We also explore whether some options are favored by decision rules and power relations. Analyzing the interactions between stakeholders and ecosystem services and understanding the trade-offs between ecosystem services can help explain the different positions in favor of or against NBS. This research highlights the importance of power relationships in adaptation decision-making, as such relationships favor the values and knowledge of some stakeholders and give priority to their preferred adaptation options.

An emerging planning framework for climate adaptation focuses on interactions among societal values, institutional rules and scientific and experiential knowledge about biophysical impacts of climate change and adaptation options. These interactions shape the decision context that can enable or constrain effective adaptation. To illustrate the operationalisation of this 'values-rules-knowledge' (VRK) framework we developed biophysical adaptation pathways for agricultural landscapes of south-eastern Australia, which are expected to become warmer and drier under climate change. We used the VRK framework to identify potential constraints to implementing the pathways. Drawing on expert knowledge, published literature, biodiversity modelling and stakeholder workshops we identified potential adaptation pathways for (1) the production matrix, (2) high conservation value remnant eucalypt woodlands, and (3) woodland trees. Adaptation options included shifts from mixed cropping-grazing to rangeland grazing or biomass enterprises; promoting re-assembly of native ecological communities; and maintaining ecosystem services and habitat that trees provide. Across all pathways, applying the VRK framework elucidated fifteen key implementation constraints, including limits to farm viability, decreasing effectiveness of environmental legislation and conflicting values about exotic plants. Most of the constraints involved interactions among VRK; 13 involved rules, eight involved values, and seven involved knowledge. Value constraints appeared most difficult to address, whereas those based on rules or knowledge were more tangible. The lower number of knowledge constraints may reflect the scale of our analysis (which focused on decision points in pre-defined pathways); new knowledge and participatory approaches would likely yield a richer set of scenarios. We conclude that the VRK framework helps connect the biophysical knowledge-based view of adaptation with a perspective on the need for changes in social systems, enabling targeting of constraints to adaptation. Our focus on pathways and decision points in different sectors of the multi-use landscape highlighted the importance of group and higher level planning and policy for balancing the collective outcomes of multiple decisions by many land managers. ; This research was funded by CSIRO Land and Water and contributes to the CSIRO Enabling Adaptation Pathways Project (EAP) and the Transformative Adaptation Research Alliance (TARA), an international network of researchers and practitioners dedicated to the development and implementation of novel approaches to transformative adaptation to global change.

Intro -- Title -- Contents -- Chapter 1: The child's tale -- Chapter 2: How did we get here? -- Chapter 3: The land itself -- Chapter 4: Settlers -- Chapter 5: Blackfella, whitefella -- Chapter 6: At home in a strange land -- Chapter 7: Mapping Country -- Chapter 8: Water, life, love and death in a dry country -- Chapter 9: The trees that shape the land -- Chapter 10: Values, rules and knowledge -- Chapter 11: Who do we think we are? -- Acknowledgements -- Notes -- Index -- Copyright.