The most extensive network of ecologists and conservation scientists ever engaged in an emergency response in Australia.

A collaborative research effort that improved our understanding of bushfire behaviour and risk.

And a partnership that demonstrated the critical role of sandalwood as a keystone resource for arid fauna and led to a new listing on the IUCN Red List.

The Ecological Society of Australia is pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 Ecological Impact Award.

‘Massive, prioritised and coordinated’ conservation response to megafires takes out top honours.

The 2022 Ecological Impact Award has been awarded to the most extensive network of ecologists and conservation scientists ever engaged in an emergency response in Australia.

The extent and severity of the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires were unprecedented, burning over 10 million hectares of temperate and subtropical Australia including one-fifth of eucalypt forests, and ecosystems that rarely burn, such as the Gondwanan rainforests.

In response, a network of over 160 experts from more than 20 institutions around Australia partnered with the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW) to prioritise fire-affected ecosystems, plant and animal species for management intervention, and for protection under Australian environmental law. The findings informed the national response that was guided through the Wildlife and Threatened Species Bushfire Recovery Expert Panel and the Threatened Species Scientific Committee.

Key legacies of the project include enhanced networks across researchers, governments, managers and communities, a blueprint for responding to ecological disasters that integrates policy, research, management and public communication, and fully documented lessons in a book, now in press at CSIRO Publishing.

“These partnerships are an essential way to connect ecological science with government decision making, to accelerate national efforts to prevent new extinctions of threatened species and respond to extreme events like the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires,” a spokesperson for the partnership said.

“The ESA Ecological Impact Award provides valuable recognition of the importance of partnerships between the ecological science community and government, as we collectively strive to achieve stronger conservation outcomes for our native plants, animals and ecosystems,” they said.

“It is particularly valuable to have this work recognised by the ESA, as we hope that it encourages a similar level of engagement in responses to future extreme events and new environmental challenges.”

‘A comprehensive and multidisciplinary understanding of the causes and consequences of the fire season, delivered within six months of the last fires being put out.’

A Highly Commended citation has been awarded to a partnership shaping policy responses to the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires.

The NSW Bushfire Risk Management Research Hub (“the Bushfire Hub”), funded by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) brings together four university research groups, fire agencies, public land managers and Indigenous knowledge holders in a collaborative research effort aiming to improve our understanding of bushfire behaviour and risk.

Following the 2019-20 Black Summer fires, the Bushfire Hub worked alongside the DPE and the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) to provide the scientific underpinning for the NSW Bushfire Inquiry, including the evidence base for many of its recommendations. All 76 Inquiry recommendations were accepted in principle by the NSW Government, setting the direction for fire management and associated research needs in NSW for the foreseeable future. The Bushfire Hub also provided fundamental scientific evidence to the Commonwealth Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements, contributing to the general alignment between recommendations of these two major inquiries.

‘Invaluable, yet previously non-documented, information … about the ecological importance of hemiparasitic plants in semi-arid and arid landscapes.’

A collaborative project between Bush Heritage Australia (BHA) and research ecologists at Charles Sturt University (CSU) has also been awarded a Highly Commended citation. The partnership provided previously unavailable data that will help to inform BHA’s reserve conservation planning and management.

In particular, the work identified Australian sandalwood (Santalum spicatum, Santalaceae) as a keystone resource providing food, and a substrate for foraging, habitat and shelter for a broad diversity of vertebrate fauna. The research has also highlighted that Australian sandalwood appears to be going extinct in the wild and is thus in need of urgent conservation intervention.  This played a role in the recent listing of Australian sandalwood as a Vulnerable threatened species on the IUCN Red List. It has also been used in nominations to the West Australian and Federal government Threatened Species Scientific Committees (currently under consideration).

Bush Heritage Reserve managers have also subsequently generated conservation options that are under review, including working in partnership with local Aboriginal Corporations to develop joint conservation and management projects aimed at sandalwood conservation and restoration.

“It’s an honour to have had our work recognised by this award,” CSU’s Richard McClellan said.

“Public awareness and recognition of the plight of our threatened species is so important. We have too many species under threat and disappearing without anyone noticing.”

“The work of organisations like ESA and Bush Heritage Australia, and science communicators like Ann Jones of ABC Science is instrumental in achieving greater conservation impacts than can be achieved by research alone.”

‘Impressed by the calibre and scope of the applications this year.’

Dr Samantha Lloyd, Chair of the ESA Practitioner Engagement Working Group and EIA assessment Committee, was impressed by the high standard of collaborative applied research and practitioner projects among the applications.

“We certainly had a very tough job as the assessment panel,” she said, “and we look forward to seeing their presentations at the ESA conference next month.”

The award will be presented at the joint conference of the Ecological Society of Australia and the Society for Conservation Biology Oceania in November. Representatives from the three projects will have the opportunity to give an update on their work at the conference.

The Ecological Impact Award celebrates the working partnership between ecological practitioners and researchers. This recognises the application of science into practice in a collaborative project.

Nominations for the 2023 Ecological Impact Award will open in November 2022. Visit the ESA website for more information.