CSIRO researchers in Alice Springs are studying sustainability issues in arid Australia such as how water point distribution influences the impact of grazing cattle on biodiversity conservation.

Research at CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems Alice Springs

CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems Alice Springs aims to improve arid land management and livelihoods at enterprise and regional and national scales.

• 2 April 2007 | Updated 14 October 2011

• The issues 
• Fire ecology and management 
• Indigenous livelihoods
• Invasive species 
• Landscape health and monitoring 
• Regional futures

The issues

The considerations include:

• a high proportion of land ownership and population in the Australian rangelands is Aboriginal
• the aspirations of the Aboriginal people are often different to that of non-indigenous Australians
• meeting these aspirations is a key challenge of sustainable development of the rangelands.

The CSIRO team based in Alice Springs is also a core partner in the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (CRC).

CSIRO works with land managers, industry and policy makers to contribute to better planning, use and management of the rangelands and their sustainable development

CSIRO Alice Springs covers five research areas:

• Fire ecology and management
• Indigenous livelihoods
• Invasive species
• Landscape health and monitoring
• Regional futures.

These are outlined below.

Fire ecology and management

Our research in fire ecology and management covers a broad range of arid land sustainability issues.

We are working with the Desert Knowledge CRC to develop a fire and vegetation management plan for Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park.

Indigenous livelihoods

In conjunction with the Desert Knowledge CRC, we are working on ways to contribute on issues that are important to Aboriginal people.

We are developing partnerships with Indigenous communities to develop culturally appropriate ecosystem service-based livelihood options that fulfil community aspirations to participate in regional economies while maintaining landscape health.

Researchers are working on ways to contribute to better informed decisions about intensification and diversification options for Aboriginal people.

Research projects include:

• Engaging Indigenous partnerships
• Livelihoods inLand™
• Prospective economic value of bush produce.

Invasive species

Buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris) is an introduced pasture grass in the arid and semi-arid rangelands but it has also become a major environmental weed.

Our research has examined its dispersal, impact and management in desert Australia.

A recent review addressed the advantages and disadvantages of the grass and recommended the development of a national strategy for its use and management.

Research projects include:

• Impacts (pastoral and biodiversity) and management of weed invasions – buffel grass.

Landscape health and monitoring

The landscape health and monitoring program includes:

• supporting the long-term prosperity of land management practices through assessing the economic, social and ecological trade-offs that affect sustainable use of rangelands.
• developing and costing new approaches to off-reserve conservation, based on an understanding of how native plants and animals use landscapes that are highly variable. We are also refining techniques for monitoring biodiversity to demonstrate the effectiveness of management actions.
• refining attributes and indicators of ecological health, and effective management and monitoring systems to incorporate biodiversity values in the future use of rangelands. This involves developing protocols for restoring ecological function to degraded landscapes.
• developing and evaluating conservation stewardship and incentive schemes, this includes the designing and testing market-based instruments for delivering conservation outcomes.

Research projects include:

• Biodiversity monitoring in the rangelands
• Grazing gradients on Barkly Tablelands
• Bioregional assessment for NRM public investment
• Enabling the markets
• Assessing biodiversity outcomes for water point management.

Regional futures

Improving regional planning and policy investment by understanding regional differences in rangelands and savannas and evaluating alternative pathways to sustainable futures

Many of the institutional policies implemented in the rangelands assume that rangelands are fairly homogeneous. In reality, there is large diversity in these characteristics.

Our goal is to understand and incorporate these differences into evaluating sustainable futures to improve regional planning in rangelands.

• designing regionally-appropriate combinations of property rights, regulatory, market-based and planning interventions that enable business, community and governments to achieve collective goals.

Research projects include:

• Outback livelihoods
• Tourism futures
• Meeting community aspirations using ICT
• VRUM ™ - OnTrack
• Australian Collaborative Rangelands Information System
• Outback institutions
•  DK CRC Sustainable desert settlements
• Modelling pastoral networks in the rangelands.

Read more about CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems.