Recovering nature for the benefit of people and planet

RGSQ Lecture Series

Dr Michelle Ward, Griffith University 

In her talk, Michelle will provide an overview of the current state of nature both globally and within Australia, focusing on the biodiversity crisis we are facing. She will explore the main drivers behind this crisis, including habitat loss, climate change, invasive species, pollution, and unsustainable land-use practices. From there, she will discuss potential solutions to these pressing issues, looking at conservation strategies, policy interventions, and innovative approaches that could help reverse the ongoing loss of biodiversity. Michele will conclude by outlining key future research endeavors that aim to deepen our understanding of biodiversity conservation, enhance restoration efforts, and secure a more sustainable ecological future.

Bio: Dr Ward's research centres on combining remote sensing technology with political science, economic instruments, and systematic conservation planning to achieve the best solutions for the environment. In doing so, she has explored the effectiveness of environmental legislation in mitigating threats, developed advanced datasets to explore threat drivers and impacts, established novel, problem-based models for cost-effectively prioritizing conservation actions, quantified the cumulative impact of development on threatened species, investigated complex sustainability problems through scenario analysis, evaluated bushfire impact and recovery, measured ecosystem services under different policy pathways, and assessed global-scale structural connectivity of landscapes.  Michelle is currently working on a cost-effective business model to halt extinctions and recovery biodiversity. This research is cross-disciplinary, linking methods from remote sensing, ecological modelling, economics, monitoring, and political science. 

Photo: Michelle Ward exploring post-fire recovery of brush tailed rock wallabies, QLD. (Shayan Barmand)