the message & the bottle ted lefroy. 1. the reflective organisation 2. the marriage of...
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The Message & the Bottle
Ted Lefroy
1. The reflective organisation
2. The marriage of biophysical & social sciences
3. Partnerships & Fellowships
4. The drivers of value & the role of govt.
5. Variable attention disorder
6. Understanding natural systems
Some personal observations
1. The reflective organisation
To reflect you need memory 53 years experience in 5 people Return on Investment – 20 years of data Harvest phase in RD&E Senior Fellowships
An unreflected life is a life unlived
At least we should be making new mistakes
Tony ‘Plato’ Gleeson
2. The marriage of social & biophysical sciences
NDSP phase 1 (processes) & 2 (people)
Riparian Program Sustainable Grazing Systems -
participatory Social & Institutional Research
Program Land Water & Wool Grain & Graze (cf. SGS, Tom
Dunbabin)
People as the solution not the problem (Siwan Lovett)
Ecocentric
Life is a conversation between the sun & the leaf with humans as interested bystanders
Anthropocentric
Life is a conversation between man and god with nature as a useful backdrop
Ian McHarg
3. Partnerships & Fellowships
Graham Farquhar Richard Stirzaker Rick Evans David FreebairnMark Stafford Smith Greg McKeon
Neil Barr Derek Eamus Pauline Mele Sam Lake David Lindenmayer Gary Stoneham
>100 partners neutral, cross-sectoral, knowledge &
adoption Top 7 B:C Climate Variability, NDSP, Cotton Pesticides, Effluent Management, SGS, Riparian, Native Vegetation
Managing ET in a carbon economy(Barney Foran)
Derek Eamus, Graham Farquhar, Rick Evans, Clive McAlpine, Ian Polglase..…
4. The drivers of value
Unrealistic to expect government to pick up the load (Paul Martin)
Innovation in the productive use of nature (Kevin Goss, Carl Binning)
Regulation that motivates (EBPC, Carl Binning)
Reward people for doing ‘the right thing’ (Tony Gleeson)
Institutional Architecture
We’re doing a whole lot of half baked things Paul Martin
We’re trying to patch management of the environment on to institutions and social systems designed for a different purpose
5. Variable attention disorder(Mark Stafford-Smith)
Human history consists of a series of excursions
from the same starting point to which humanity
returns time and time again in search of an
enduring set of values
Aldo Leopold
Big ideas
The cult of the hero The divine right of kings Organised religion The rights of the
individual Natural selection
Food & fibre production Transport Housing Energy Nature conservation
Food & fibre productionTransportHousingEnergy Nature conservation
(Cotton Pesticides)
6. Understanding natural systems
(Riparian, River Health, EWA, Native Vegetation, NDSP, SGS, Climate Variability, Land Water & Wool, Grain &
Graze, TRaCK)
1. Thematic, national, applied
2. Multiple spatial scales
3. Different Qs at different scales
Understanding processes at different scales
The story is in the variance not the mean
Australia is the only continent where the biota has been shaped more by the variability between years than within
Tim FlanneryProbabalistic vs deterministic
1. The reflective organisation
2. The marriage of biophysical & social science
3. Partnerships & Fellowships
4. The drivers of value & the role of govt.
5. Variable attention disorder
6. Understanding natural systems