CSIRO investigates methods to improve farming sustainability.

Conservation overview

CSIRO contributes significantly to Australia's biodiversity conservation effort with research that tackles the underlying challenges and threats facing plants, animals and the broader environment.

• 16 November 2005 | Updated 14 October 2011

• Conservation pressures
• CSIRO's approach
• Native plants
• Endangered animals

Conservation pressures

Research in conservation and landscape management is critical to answer questions and address challenges facing our environment and habitats.

Issues such as climate change, urbanisation pressures, invasive pests and land clearing can:

• fragment native ecosystems
• reduce ecosystem services
• decrease biodiversity
• augment environmental problems such as salinity and water quality.

CSIRO’s approach

CSIRO's conservation research focuses on large-scale integrated solutions to conservation and biodiversity issues at a regional or national scale. These studies are beyond the capacity of smaller, more specialised institutions.

In addition, we collaborate on local and international targeted conservation efforts.

CSIRO's research benefits conservation by:

• working with organisations and communities such as landholders and mining companies in planning and research implementation
• improving our understanding of ecology and how ecosystems function
• raising public understanding and awareness about conservation and natural resource issues.

Native plants

CSIRO research to protect and enhance native plants addresses:

• biodiversity of native vegetation remnants

  Involving communities in landscape and conservation research is vital to preserve species and benefit biodiversity across the environment
• areas of native vegetation that have been isolated due to land clearing
• re-establishing native vegetation to combat environmental problems such as dryland salinity.

Research focuses on several areas including the ecology and evolution of native plant communities, and their interactions with associated organisms such as fungal pathogens and soil symbionts.

The impact of exotic plants on native plant communities also affects biodiversity. CSIRO is investigating strategies to help manage the problem of weeds. We are also developing methods to evaluate the impact of genetically modified plants in our native ecosystems.

Endangered animals

CSIRO research to conserve endangered animals includes efforts to:

• understand extinction processes
• develop management approaches in agricultural landscapes that maximise biodiversity and ecosystem services
• evaluate the performance of existing conservation efforts such as reserves and re-vegetation programs
• develop sustainable, ecologically-based techniques to manage farm pests, and maximise yield while maintaining ecosystem services and sustainability
• find innovative and sustainable ways to manage invasive pests
• understand ecological impacts of climate change, urbanisation, and other pressures on animal populations and their habitats.

We are using landscape-wide approaches and community participatory research to find ways to implement management that will generate significant impacts from our conservation efforts.

Read more about CSIRO's Conservation research.