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The Message & the Bottle. Ted Lefroy. Some personal observations. The reflective organisation The marriage of biophysical & social sciences Partnerships & Fellowships The drivers of value & the role of govt. Variable attention disorder Understanding natural systems.
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The Message & the Bottle Ted Lefroy
Some personal observations The reflective organisation The marriage of biophysical & social sciences Partnerships & Fellowships The drivers of value & the role of govt. Variable attention disorder Understanding natural systems
An unreflected life is a life unlived At least we should be making new mistakes 1. The reflective organisation • To reflect you need memory • 53 years experience in 5 people • Return on Investment – 20 years of data • Harvest phase in RD&E • Senior Fellowships Tony ‘Plato’ Gleeson
2. The marriage of social & biophysical sciences • NDSP phase 1 (processes) & 2 (people) • Riparian Program • Sustainable Grazing Systems - participatory • Social & Institutional Research Program • Land Water & Wool • Grain & Graze (cf. SGS, Tom Dunbabin)
People as the solution not the problem (Siwan Lovett) Ecocentric Life is a conversation between the sun & the leaf with humans as interested bystanders Anthropocentric Life is a conversation between man and god with nature as a useful backdrop Ian McHarg
3. Partnerships & Fellowships >100 partners neutral, cross-sectoral, knowledge & adoption Top 7 B:C Climate Variability, NDSP, Cotton Pesticides, Effluent Management, SGS, Riparian, Native Vegetation Graham Farquhar Richard Stirzaker Rick Evans David Freebairn Mark Stafford Smith Greg McKeon Neil Barr Derek Eamus Pauline Mele Sam Lake David Lindenmayer Gary Stoneham
Managing ET in a carbon economy(Barney Foran) Derek Eamus, Graham Farquhar, Rick Evans, Clive McAlpine, Ian Polglase..…
4. The drivers of value • Unrealistic to expect government to pick up the load (Paul Martin) • Innovation in the productive use of nature (Kevin Goss, Carl Binning) • Regulation that motivates (EBPC, Carl Binning) • Reward people for doing ‘the right thing’ (Tony Gleeson)
Institutional Architecture We’re doing a whole lot of half baked things Paul Martin We’re trying to patch management of the environment on to institutions and social systems designed for a different purpose
5. Variable attention disorder(Mark Stafford-Smith) Human history consists of a series of excursions from the same starting point to which humanity returns time and time again in search of an enduring set of values Aldo Leopold
Big ideas • The cult of the hero • The divine right of kings • Organised religion • The rights of the individual • Natural selection
Food & fibre productionTransportHousingEnergy Nature conservation • Food & fibre production • Transport • Housing • Energy • Nature conservation (Cotton Pesticides)
6. Understanding natural systems(Riparian, River Health, EWA, Native Vegetation, NDSP, SGS, Climate Variability, Land Water & Wool, Grain & Graze, TRaCK) Thematic, national, applied Multiple spatial scales Different Qs at different scales Understanding processes at different scales
The story is in the variance not the mean Australia is the only continent where the biota has been shaped more by the variability between years than within Tim Flannery Probabalistic vs deterministic
The reflective organisation The marriage of biophysical & social science Partnerships & Fellowships The drivers of value & the role of govt. Variable attention disorder Understanding natural systems