AUSTRALIA—GERMANY WORKSHOP ON BIODIVERSITY

The Shine Dome, 13-17 March 2006

Sustainable land use and biodiversity conservation: research challenges and opportunities for cooperation
by Dr Klaus Henle, Head, Department of Conservation Biology and Natural Resources Centre for Environmental Research, UFZ, Leipzig-Halle

Sustainable land use and biodiversity conservation are major challenges not only for Australia and Germany, but globally. Three topics that provide major research challenges and opportunities for cooperation between Australia and Germany will be discussed. Landscape structures are increasingly modified by the accelerating dynamics of global land use change leading to an unprecedented loss and fragmentation of habitats, which is one of the major drivers of the global loss in biodiversity. Fragmentation of habitats is a major conservation and management problem in Australia and in Germany. Land use change, and, in consequence, landscape structures and biodiversity, are influenced increasingly by international regulations. The effects of global decisions on the interrelationships between local, national and international economic, societal and environmental values are insufficiently understood to develop adequate management and policy instruments to deal with the changes. Environmentally sound watershed management is a major challenge in Australia and in Germany. Both countries have suffered from inadequate management decisions in the past that have impacted on ecological services of watersheds and on the biodiversity of rivers and floodplains. Both countries have had major research initiatives to support watershed management. An exchange of this experience in joint projects would provide substantial mutual benefits.