Three reports are available:

1. Biodiversity monitoring in the rangelands: A way forward
   
2. Developing an analytical framework for monitoring biodiversity in Australia's rangelands
   
3. Biodiversity and Land Condition in Tropical Savanna Rangelands

Biodiversity monitoring in the rangelands: A way forward

By Anita Smyth, Craig James and Grant Whiteman, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems

Published Tropical Savannas CRC, 2003;

Hard copy ISBN: 0 9581014 1 8
Web copy ISBN: 0 9581014 5 0

This report aims to help people plan effective biodiversity monitoring in the rangelands and is published by Environment Australia and CSIRO SE. Biodiversity Monitoring in the Rangelands: A Way Forward builds on the work done by the report below ( Developing an Analytical Framework) that outlined the issues involved and is based on a workshop held in Alice Springs. The report:

• Brings together experts from all rangeland States and Territory
• Considers and reviews recent, and most importantly, unpublished research relevant to biodiversity monitoring in the rangelands
• Develops a common 'state-of-the-art' view and an understanding of the complexity of biodiversity monitoring in the rangelands
• Develops a shared view on the most appropriate 'sufficient and necessary' set of attributes and techniques for use now by different clients to monitor changes in biodiversity
• Highlights the limitations of particular sets of attributes and techniques
• Identifies interim guiding principles for rangeland biodiversity monitoring
• Identifies knowledge gaps and research needs.

It is aimed largely at technical audience and regional level groups. A future publication is planned that will serve the needs to land users.

Free hard copies of the report can be obtained from the Tropical Savannas CRC or Environment Australia. Alternatively, you can download a pdf version of the report from the link below.

Also available are pdfs of commissioned papers that accompany this report as a CD. You can also download the papers —Go to the Commissioned Papers page at left.

Developing an analytical framework for monitoring biodiversity in Australia's rangelands

By John Woinarski, Parks & Wildlife Commission of the NT

ISBN: 0 9 578489 9 4 485 pp.

* Hard copy versions are no longer available. However, the report is available in a series of PDF documents on the National Land and Water Resources Audit website, see Links box at right.

This report into into biodiversity monitoring in the rangelands was completed by a team of researchers from the TS-CRC, led by Dr John Woinarski from the Parks & Wildlife Commission of the NT. It was carried out under contract for the National Land and Water Resources Audit (NLWRA).

The project developed a framework for monitoring biodiversity across Australia's 49 rangeland bioregions and found that biodiversity had been affected in all rangeland environments.

The report on the project, Developing an Analytical Framework for Monitoring Biodiversity in Australia's Rangelands , summarises threatening processes that occur in the rangelands including change in fire regimes, pastoralism, feral predators, weeds, mining, hunting and harvesting native species, clearing, horticulture, pesticides and climate change.

A monitoring strategy is set out in detail and includes the establishment of a common reporting framework and integration of analysis of monitoring results.

Biodiversity and Land Condition in Tropical Savanna Rangelands (Summary Report) 

By Alaric Fisher (Tropical Savannas CRC and NT Dept. of Natural Resources, the Environment and the Arts) and Alex Kutt (Tropical Savannas CRC and CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems)

Tropical Savannas CRC, 2006 

This report brings together a number of research findings from across north Australia on the question of whether measures of land condition can also be used for measuring biodiversity condition. The report finds that land condition is, by itself, too blunt an instrument to adequately monitor biodiversity status in savanna rangelands. Nevertheless, improvements in land condition across rangeland landscapes are likely to have positive biodiversity consequences. The report also lists 15 management guidelines for retention of biodiversity in tropical savanna rangelands.

Only available as a pdf - downloadable from panel at top right