Client

Landscapes and Policy Hub

The hub’s research focused on biodiversity conservation at the landscape scale (as opposed to a specific ecosystem or species) in 2 regions:

  • the Australian Alps
  • the Tasmanian Midlands

 

What we did

During 2014, as the hub wound up its research and published its findings, we worked with the hub’s researchers to summarise their research in plain English for policy people in government and non-government agencies.

For 23 research projects, we reviewed the source material (mainly journal articles) and summarised the problem, the research methods, the findings and the implications for policymakers.

Each summary is 4 pages in length.

The implications for policymakers are stated clearly on the front cover of each summary.
As well as writing the text, we:

  • liaised directly with the researchers to clarify points, source images and seek their approval
  • liaised with the hub’s director, communications manager and knowledge brokers to seek their feedback on drafts and approval
  • copyedited the text to comply with the hub’s house editorial style
  • designed the summary template
  • laid out the text and images in the design
  • proofread the summaries
  • delivered PDF and InDesign print-ready files.

 

A number of summaries were presented to sample groups of policy people at 2 workshops and we incorporated their feedback into the remaining summaries.

While written and designed for print, some of the summaries are published on the hub’s legacy website: Life at large.

We also wrote a 100-word summary of each research project for use as a ‘teaser’ on the hub’s website and in other publications.
Tasmanian Midlands

 

Australian Alps

  • Ashes to ashes: increased fire frequency threatens alpine ash forests [PDF 435 kb]
  • Wild horses in the Australian Alps: using satellite data to monitor impact
  • Cattle grazing and fire severity in the Australian Alps
  • Social and economic status: the implications for conservation in the Australian Alps
  • Alpine bogs: locating communities most at risk

 

General topics

  • Conservation in the context of transformation: what role can governance play?
  • Mechanisms for managing biodiversity at the landscape scale: a guide for policymakers
  • The language of policy: a tool for evaluating and designing institutions [PDF 547 kb]
  • Eucalypt forests of temperate Australia: a landscape set to transform
  • Managing invasive animals and plants: finding cost-effective strategies
  • Planning wildlife corridors at the regional scale: a tool for conservation planners
  • The fate of species under climate change: why we cannot ignore uncertainty
  • Modelling species distribution under climate change: it’s important to represent uncertainty
  • Climate projections for ecologists