Dr Sarah Bekessy

Position	Senior Lecturer
School / Work Unit	Global Studies, Social Science &Planning
Contact Details	+(61 3) 9925 1858 sarah.bekessy@rmit.edu.au
Location	Building: 15 Level: 3 Room: 6 City Campus
Portfolio	Design & Social Context

Key activities

I have been teaching in environmental studies and sustainability at RMIT University since 2003. I am interested in the intersection between science and policy and am currently involved in an interdisciplinary range of research and consulting projects, including:

• An Australian Research Council research project titled ‘Reimagining the Australian Suburb&#:Biodiversity Panning in the Urban Fringe. This project builds on recent advancements in ecological modeling and mathematical optimisation to develop and test tools to facilitate transparent decisions based on optimal trade-offs between competing values. The main objective is to develop and encourage a more strategic approach to planning conservation in urban environments. The project is part of a larger collaboration based at RMIT University consisting of six separate, but mutually supportive research projects that investigate the potential for significantly improved ecological, economic and social sustainability outcomes in development at the urban fringe.
• An Australian Research Council research project titled Building Capacity for a Sustainable Future: embedding education for sustainability into universities. This project investigates methods for incorporating sustainability issues in non-traditional disciplines. Achieving change for sustainability requires both individuals with the capacity to implement sustainability principles in their professions and models for profound organisational change. Using universities as a case study, this research aims to develop and implement an organisational change model for up-scaling and embedding sustainability as standard practice. Integrating systems analysis and organisational learning, the research will illustrate methods for overcoming barriers to the adoption of sustainability principles. The project addresses the acknowledged demand for graduates with sustainability expertise and will result in practical strategies for organisational change for sustainability.
• A landmark study of peri-urban regions in two Australian states, Victoria and Queensland. This project, titled Change and Continuity in Peri-Urban Australia investigates the nature and extent of contemporary peri urban regions in Australia, and aims to identify future patterns of socio-economic, environmental change in peri-urban landscapes. The project is funded by Land and Water Australia and is joint research project between RMIT and Griffith University.
• Co-editor of the journal Conservation and Society.

I also provide advice to government and industry in the following capacity:

• Member of the Victorian Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability’s reference group
• Member of the Victorian Government’s panel to review vegetation clearance exemptions
• Direct advice to numerous other agencies including: the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment, Port Phillip and Western Port Catchment Management Authority, Hume and Whittlesea City Councils
• Member of The Landscape Futures Alliance which is a newly formed research group of 15 leading scientists and managers from Universities and State Government Departments who have joined forces to address some of today's biggest questions in land and vegetation management. The group aims to significantly improve decision making and target setting in rural and urban-fringe landscapes and to improve cost effectiveness of efforts to restore ecological function to degraded land.

Before joining RMIT I spent six months in Ontario, working for the Canadian Forest Service exploring the use of dynamic landscape population modeling as a tool in sustainable forest management. In collaboration with Brendan Wintle, we developed three case studies, chosen as ‘bio-indicators’ of forest health: the red-backed salamander, brown creeper and red-backed vole. Prior to that, I was involved in a research project investigating ‘Sustainability as a new policy paradigm’. The project was funded by the Australian Collaboration and aimed to further develop the argument that a new political paradigm is needed to achieve a more appropriate balance between social, environmental and economic policy.

You may have noticed that I’m a bit obsessed with the Monkey Puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana).My PhD study focused on the conservation biology of this threatened South American species. My principal objective was to explore the role of various scientific approaches in conservation and to evaluate their contribution to the development of meaningful conservation strategies for natural populations of threatened trees. In particular, I focused on the use of genetics and population viability analysis.

Teaching/Work responsibilities

My current teaching responsibilities are:

• Undergraduate
• ENVI 1153 Sustainability: society and environment
• ENVI 1168 Shaping Environmental Futures
• ENVI 1043 Ecological Foundations of Planning
• ENVI 1058 Environmental Work Practice

Postgraduate

• ENVI 1162 Ecosystems and Human Impacts

Qualifications

Bsc (Hons) University of QLD, PhD University of Melbourne

Research/Scholarship

Research Interests

• Threatened species management
• Population and landscape modeling
• Urban ecology
• Education for sustainability
• The role of science in environmental policy

Recent Consulting Experience

• Tools for biodiversity conservation planning in rural landscapes, Department of Sustainability and Environment
• Contracted to provide training sessions on State of the Environment reporting to City of Whitehorse
• Contracted to provide training sessions to the Sutherland Shire Councils on issues relating environmental sustainability
• Consultant, Wyndham Growth Corridor biodiversity analysis
• Commissioned by the Planning Institute of Australia to prepare the biodiversity section of a submission to the Standing Committee on Environment and Heritage’s Inquiry into Sustainable Cities
• Prepared a revised Environmental Policy for RMIT University in 2004 and an Implementation Plan in 2005

Publications

Journal articles

Venier LA, Pearce JL, Wintle BA, Bekessy SA (in press) Future forests and indicator-species population models. The Forestry Chronicle.

Bekessy SA, Banks J, McCarthy MA, Dorrough J, K Lowe and Wintle BA (in review) Tools for biodiversity conservation planning in rural landscapes. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment.

Bekessy SA, Clarkson RE, Sampson K (in review) Sustainability at RMIT: rhetoric to reality. International Journal for Sustainability in Higher Education.

Bekessy SA, Morcombe J (2006) Biodiversity management in per-urban landscapes. In: Change and Continuity in Peri-Urban Australia: A Review of the Literature (eds G. Tieman, M. Buxton), Land and Water Australia Monograph, Melbourne.

Wintle BA, Bekessy SA, Venier LA, Pearce J (2005) A case study to evaluate the utility of dynamic landscape meta-population models for sustainable forest management: the Brown Creeper. Conservation Biology, 19(6): 1930-1943.

Bekessy S, Burgman M, Wright T, Leal Filho W, Smith M (2003) Universities and Sustainability. Tela: environment, economy and society. Issue 11. (http://www.acfonline.org.au/docs/general/00470.pdf)

Bekessy SA, Ennos RA, Burgman MA, Newton AC & Ades PK (2003) Neutral DNA markers fail to detect divergence in an ecologically important trait. Biological Conservation 110: 267-285.

Bekessy SA, Sleep D, Stott A, Mennuccini M, Thomas P, Ennos RA, Burgman MA, Gardner MF & Newton AC (2002) Adaptation of monkey puzzle to arid environments reflected by regional differences in stable carbon isotope ratio and allocation to root biomass, Forest Genetics 9: 63-70.

Bekessy SA, Allnutt TR, Premoli AC, Lara A, Ennos RA, Burgman M.A, Cortes M & Newton AC (2002) Genetic variation in the vulnerable and endemic Monkey Puzzle tree, detected using RAPDs, Heredity 88: 243-249.

Bekessy SA, Ades PK, Burgman MA, Wintle BA (in prep) The need for more rigorous statistics to determine the real genetic consequences of habitat fragmentation.

Bekessy SA, Wintle BA, Venier L, Pearce J, Gordon A (in prep) A Case Study to Evaluate Dynamic Landscape Meta-population Models for Sustainable Forest Management: the Red-backed Salamander.

Bekessy SA, Sagive M (in prep) Are environmental regulations good for business? : A case study of water-efficiency standards for household appliances.

Book chapters

Bekessy SA, Gordon A (in review) Nurturing Nature in the City. In: Living sustainably: policies and practices for sustainable housing and urban planning (ed. Nelson A), NATSEM Research Centre of AHURI, Melbourne.

Holdsworth, S., Bekessy , S., Mnguni, P., Hayles, C and I. Thomas (2006) Beyond Leather Patches (BELP): Sustainability Education at RMIT University, In Sustainability in the Australasian University Context Leal Filho, W., and D. Carpenter (Eds) Peter Lang Publishers.

Bekessy SA, Newton AC, Fox, JC, Lara A, Premoli, A, Cortes M, Gonzalez M, Burns B, Gallo L, Izquierdo F & Burgman MA (2004) The monkey puzzle tree in southern Chile, In: Species Conservation and Management: Case studies (eds. HR Açkakaya HR, MA Burgman, O Kindvall, C Wood, P Sjogren-Gulve, J Hatfield & MA McCarthy). Oxford University Press.

Bekessy SA, Lara A, González M, Cortes M, L. Gallo, Premoli AC & Newton AC (2004) Variación Genética en Araucaria araucana. In: Variación en especies nativas de los bosques templados chileno-argentinos (eds. C Donoso & R Ipinza).

Conferences Papers/Publications

Bekessy SA, Burgman MA, Yencken D, Wright T, Leal Filho W, Garden D and Rostan-Herbert D (2002)A Summary of Environmental Practice in Australian Universities. National Conference of Sustainable Universities, Melbourne.

Henry S, Bekessy SA, Doley D, Swanborough PW, Keenan RJ and Yates DJ (1998) Physiological indicators for early management of stem form in Flindersia brayleyana, in J Kikkawa, P Dart, D Doley, K Ishii, D Lamb, K Suzuki (eds) Overcoming Impediments to Reforestation: Tropical Forest Rehabilitation in the Asia-Pacific Region. Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop of BIO-REFOR, Brisbane, 2-5 December 1997, pp 59-63, Tokyo, Japan, BIO-REFOR.

Other publications

Fox JC, Bekessy SA, Meggs JM, Bonham K, Mesibov R, McCarthy MA, Munks SA, Wells P, Brown MJ, Brereton R, Graham K, Hickey J, Turner P, Jones M & Burgman MA (2003) Linking landscape ecology and management to population viability analysis - a collaborative project between the University of Melbourne and Forestry Tasmania.

Bekessy SA and Burgman MA (2001) Environmental Best Practice in Australian and International Universities, Report to the Vice-Chancellor, University of Melbourne.

Smith GC, Ross Y and Bekessy SA (1998) Hollows, Habitat Trees and Sustainable Forest Management in Queensland State forests. Report to Queensland Department of Natural Resources, Brisbane, Australia.

Accomplishments/achievements

Awards

• Brian Robinson Fellowship for Environmental Sustainability 2005
• RMIT research award 2004, 2005
• RMIT collaborative research prize 2005
• Nominated for teaching award, RMIT, 2004
• John S. Turner award for Botany postgraduate students in 2001
• Australian Postgraduate Award 1998 to 2000
• Australian Bicentennial Award for postgraduate research in 1999