ProfessorBenjamin J. Richardson

Project Total: $301,846; This project aims to investigate the role of conservation covenants in facilitating ecological restoration and adaptation to climate change. In light of international experience, the project examines Australia's legal experience with conservation covenants, with case studies in NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria. The project expects to generate new theoretical insights and practical knowledge about the obstacles and opportunities for enabling covenants to play a more ambitious role in meeting biodiversity conservation and recovery goals. This should generate significant benefits to Australia in meeting its international environmental obligations, and improving collaboration between governments and community and landholder stakeholders. Funded by: Australian Research Council - Grant-Discovery Projects ($301,846); University of Tasmania ($10,000).

Project Total: $424,000; The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) outlines key goals and targets that specifically acknowledge the importance of protecting, conserving and managing land and water effectively. While protected areas are well understood and studied, conserved and managed lands and their role in delivering environmental and social outcomes are not. This project will review private-land conservation programs against the draft Australian OECM framework criteria to indicate the types of programs that are likely to qualify. Based on this review, programs that are near OECM standard but that fall short on key criteria, such as actively managing for biodiversity outcomes, will be considered for place-based research. Within programs, the research will design and deploy interventions to support landholders to manage their land consistent with OECM criteria and track the outcomes of this management over time to demonstrate enduring biodiversity outcomes. The research will demonstrate if the hypothesised benefits to both biodiversity and participants of these programs (e.g., increased nature connectedness) hold true. If our findings are positive, we expect these interventions could be added to private-land conservation programs in other jurisdictions. Funded by: Department of Agriculture Water and the Environment - Grant-National Environmental Science Prgm (NESP); University of Western Australia ($424,000); University of Tasmania ($54,000).

Project Total: $15,000; Sarah Brugler is a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Law. Sarah has a CALE Tasmania Graduate Research Scholarship. The title of Sarah's thesis is: Private land conservation in environmental law: A study of governance and practice. A request for funding from the Barbara Thomas Fellowship for Excellence in Conservation administered by the Nature Conservancy has been made to support's Sarah's research and will be used to: - support attendance at the Land Trust Alliance Rally 2022 in New Orleans - undertake domestic travel to discuss covenant governance arrangements across Australia - miscellaneous research needs (interview transcription, recording devices, survey coordination) Funded by: The Nature Conservancy Australia - Barbara Thomas Fellowship ($15,000); University of Tasmania.

Project Total: $515,000; This application from 12 Universities (UNSW, UTS, Melbourne, Sydney, ANU, UQ, UWA, UTAS, Griffith, UNE, La Trobe, Flinders) proposes that the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII), a free access research facility jointly operated by UNSW and UTS Faculties of Law, will develop a new research facility based on a Library of databases consolidating and enhancing access to legal and quasi-legal resources relating to Australian Environmental and Planning Law. Funded by: Australian Research Council - Grant-Linkage Infrastructure; University of Tasmania ($10,000).

Project Total: $13,742; The project aims to improve academic knowledge and practical knowhow in developing a richer and more socially inclusive framework for engaging communities in nature conservation through aesthetics, including the arts, and thereby to generate recommendations for nongovernmental organisations and government policymakers working on environmental issues. This will be achieved through a community workshop, field CAL Hothouse Research Enhancement Program EOI 2017 Page 5 of 12 trip to a nature reserve, engagement with stakeholders especially school teachers, and scholarly publications. Aesthetics is vital for engaging communities in their natural environments because it can generate an emotional and cultural commitment in a way that science and economics cannot easily solicit. However, the appeal to environmental aesthetics has tended to exalt landscapes that are pristine?, without people, and to use imagery or messages that appeal primarily to specific socio-economic groups (eg, the well educated, affluent, and urban) while of less relevance to others, such as poorer, rural populations, disaffected youth, and sometimes Aboriginal communities. Because Australian society is deeply divided in how it values landscapes, we urgently need a more inclusive and varied approach to reading? aesthetic values in the environment (eg spiritual and historic values, and recreational benefits, in addition to ecological values). If environmental law and policy, and the practices of environmental organisations, are to achieve broader community support, a more sophisticated framework for assessing aesthetic values is needed to underpin environmental decisions. The project (in the UTAS-funded phase) collaborates closely with the Tasmanian Land Conservancy (TLC), the leading private land conserver in the state, to investigate how these challenges can be met through a case study of its Five Rivers Reserve in the central highlands. A community workshop and site-visit over two-days will involve academics, artists and local stakeholders to identify and evaluate a process for understanding environmental aesthetics, and to extrapolate how this can inform the work of organisations such as the TLC and government regulators such as the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment (DPIPWE). Thereafter, the project with external funding would be scaled up to include additional community-focused case studies in Tasmania and one mainland state, and partnering with a community nature conservation organisation in that mainland state in order to develop a more comprehensive framework of relevance to other stakeholders across Australia. Funded by: University of Tasmania - Grant - CALE Hothouse Alignment Scheme; University of Tasmania ($13,742).

Project Total: $22,342; Funded by: Australian Research Council ($22,342); University of Tasmania.

Project Total: $255,195; The project looks at the application of a terrestrial cultural business model to the marine environment and evaluates opportunities for indigenous engagement in marine activities. The project also develops indigenous research capactity. Funded by: Fisheries Research & Development Corporation - Grant-Annual Open Call Round ($255,195); University of Tasmania ($30,000).

Project Total: $3,872,883; A four year research program funded by the European Commission, and coordinated by the University of Oslo, to investigate how to achieve the European Union's and the United Nations' sustainable development goals through private enterprise and markets governance Funded by: European Commission - Grant-Horizon 2020; University of Tasmania.

Project Total: $6,866; A workshop and accompanying research paper that examines eco-restoration in Australia and the development of more scientifically-informed governance and policy. Funded by: University of Tasmania - Grant-Cross-Disciplinary Incentive; University of Tasmania ($6,866).

Project Total: $14,378; Funded by: University of British Columbia

Project Total: $9,682; Funded by: University of British Columbia Faculty of Law

Project Total: $7,665; Funded by: Sustainable Prosperity

Project Total: $714,000; Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Project Total: $18,562; Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Project Total: $979,623; Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Project Total: $1,120,340; Funded by: Norwegian Research Council

Project Total: $87,300; Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Project Total: $113,871; Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Project Total: $23,280; Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Project Total: $11,471; Funded by: International Development Research Centre (Canada)

Project Total: $28,679; Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Project Total: $32,121; Funded by: Canadian International Development Agency

Project Total: $5,735; Funded by: Natural Resources Canada (Government of Canada)

Project Total: $2,286,087; Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Project Total: $12,551; Funded by: Canada Department of Justice