Adaptation College

Melanie Bainbridge came to her current role as Climate Change Coordinator for the Western Australian Local Government Association in an interesting and unusual manner. Her educational background in Professional Writing, Environmental Ethics and Women’s Studies at Murdoch and Deakin Universities, has led her to take up a career in environmental policy. She currently works on behalf of Local Government in Western Australia, coordinating climate change policy and projects for the sector. Melanie has worked in the environmental field for a number of years, predominantly in the ‘not-for-profit’ sector. Having a grounding in ‘grass roots’ advocacy and educational programs, Melanie has ‘cut her teeth’ in environmental organisations in both Australia and England, working towards ‘on ground’ environmental outcomes. Now behind a desk, Melanie works to affect a shift towards an understanding of climate change management needs in Local and State Government policy through developing and delivering a range of innovative policy and project options to Local Government, by which they might improve their climate change strategies through appropriate risk assessment and management approach.

Email: mbainbridge@walga.asn.au

Marcus Barber is a Social Scientist at the CSIRO in Darwin working on Indigenous environmental projects related to fresh and salt water management. Marcus has strong interdisciplinary training within the natural and social sciences, as he holds a Ph.D in anthropology as well as an Honours degree in marine biology and a BA majoring in the history and philosophy of science. His ethnographic research with the Yolngu people of Australia’s tropical north emphasises why water is important to Yolngu cosmology and Yolngu environmental conceptualisations, and this research directly contributed to a successful High Court case regarding indigenous rights to the intertidal zone and tidal rivers in northern Australia. Marcus was a member of the UNESCO Expert Advisory Group on Water and Cultural Diversity in 2008 and 2009 and aside from his work on water, Marcus has researched and published on diverse topics including death, material culture, and fish ecology. Global warming and associated environmental change in a range of remote Arnhem Land communities was a focus of his post-PhD fieldwork, and his current projects examining historical ecology and modelling Local and Indigenous Knowledge as part of the CSIRO Indigenous water management team in Darwin have direct implications for understanding and adapting to climate change. Marcus taught at the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at James Cook University, Townsville until 2009 and remains an Associate Lecturer with the Department.

Email: Marcus.Barber@csiro.au

Edward Boydell is an Honours Student in the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University. His undergraduate program was a mix of environmental science, policy and research methods, and Honours research is focused on practical dimensions of adaptation to climate change in local governments. Originally from the UK, Edward grew up in Australia and Fiji. He returned to Australia in 2006 to commence a research-intensive undergraduate degree, and climate change has become the major theme of his studies. He is also interested in organisational dimensions of sustainability, working for campus-sustainability programs at ANU and Yale University. Edward’s interest in adaptation was sparked when he attended the 2007 UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, and followed the negotiations of Least Developed Countries. The issues exposed by the preparation of National Adaptation Programmes of Action highlighted some of the conceptual and practical challenges involved in developing and implementing planned adaptation strategies, and the importance of research in the area. For his Honours research, Edward is working with the Sydney Coastal Councils Group to understand how key players in Councils are engaging with and prioritising adaptation, with a focus on the role of different forms of knowledge and learning. In addition, he has also recently completed an internship at CARE Australia, evaluating the interaction of their international development projects and sensitivity to climate change. After thesis submission, Edward intends to continue work on the social and institutional dimensions of adaptation, either in local government or international development.

Email: edward.boydell@anu.edu.au

Alison Browne is a Senior Research Associate at the Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC), Lancaster University in the United Kingdom (January 2010 – continuing). I am managing the Lancaster component of the 'ARCC (Adaptation and Resilience in a Changing Climate)-Water' project - an EPSRC funded project using the latest climate scenarios to assess the risk of climate change on water resource systems in the south east of England. The research we are conducting at LEC will extend an everyday practice, cultural and socio-technical perspective of water in order to develop new conceptualisations of domestic water demand for the UK. This approach to analysing water demand builds upon an examination of how demand is constituted through the diversity and evolution of ordinary and everyday practices in the home. Previously, I was employed as a Research Fellow with the Research Centre for Stronger Communities and as a Social and Environmental Psychologist at CSIRO. In 2007 I completed a PhD and Post Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Australian Cultural Studies at Curtin University focusing on the unforeseen impacts of participatory research and development with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in the Kimberley region of Western Australia (WA), rural New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria. My work has focused on the mitigation and adaptation of various urban, rural and remote communities to climate change scenarios in Australia (WA, Victoria, NSW, and Queensland) and now the UK. My disciplinary background is in community and environmental psychology, but I take an interdisciplinary approach to explore the community, institutional and policy aspects of environmental governance, with specific interests in various sub-disciplines of sociology and geography. My research interests include practice theory and socio-technical perspectives about resource use and climate change; community acceptability, risk perceptions and governance arrangements of water infrastructure such as recycled water and desalination; cultural values, design and usage of ‘greenspace’; household and garden water usage; trans-boundary food and water security issues; sustainable agriculture and rural development; social justice and fairness, particularly regarding the impact of climate change on already vulnerable populations; uncertainty and risk frameworks; and environmental democracy and democratic transitions; property and land rights frameworks such as Native Title; and social and environmental legacies of Mining and theories of the ‘Mega-projects’ paradox.

Email: a.browne@lancaster.ac.uk

Kim Byrnes completed a Bachelor of Science at Griffith University in 2000, followed by a Graduate Diploma in Natural Environmental Management at University of Tasmania in 2006. Kim has significant experience working in local and state government in rural health, community development, sustainability and climate change. As the Climate Change Project Manager with the Peel-Harvey Catchment Council, Kim worked with local governments in the Peel Region to develop Climate Change Adaptation Policies/Strategies for themes of biodiversity and emergency management (project report available on request). Previously, Kim managed the Cities for Climate Protection (greenhouse gas mitigation and reporting) program for six local governments within a regional council framework. Kim expanded this CCP role to include an investigation of the impacts of the emerging National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme and the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme on local government operations and was successful in attracting funding under the Local Adaptations Pathways Program to undertake a regional risk assessment. Kim is currently working as a regional development coordinator with the Peel Development Commission.

Email: Kim.Byrnes@peel.wa.gov.au

Jennifer Cane is the manager of the Adaptation Science & Information team within the Department of Sustainability and Environment. Her role encompasses working with other areas of DSE and across-government and the community stakeholders to help disseminate climate change science and adaptation research; establish the Victorian Government’s Climate Change Adaptation Research Centre which aims to bring together expertise in social, economic and biophysical science for adaptation research that provides cross-disciplinary advice to the government and the community; identify potential climate change impacts and consideration of appropriate adaptation responses within the Department of Sustainability and Environment’s and Government’s broader policy objectives. Jennifer has a Bachelor of Science (majoring in geography and environmental science) from Monash University. She was born and raised in rural Ontario, Canada but has lived in Australia for the past 16 years.

Email: Jennifer.Cane@dse.vic.gov.au

Carol Farbotko is a human geographer interested in relationships between people and their environments. Her research is broadly concerned with issues of engagement, communication, culture, risk, power and justice in contexts of environmental change. She explores these issues among households, communities, in governance, and in public arenas. She focuses on intersections between climate change and social and environmental justice, and works to understand resilience and vulnerability among communities. Her specific research interests include: climate change and the media, fossil fuel cultures, climate change geopolitics, sea level rise and climate refugees, environmental activism, and cultural geographies of islands, coasts and industrial cities. Carol is employed at the Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research at the University of Wollongong, where she is undertaking an ethnographic study of Illawarra households as part of an Australian Research Council Discovery project, ‘Making less space for carbon: cultural research for climate change mitigation and adaptation.’ Carol completed a PhD in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Tasmania in 2008. Her dissertation was titled Representing climate change space: islographs of Tuvalu. Focusing on disappearing islands, she examined how public debate and policy on climate change shapes and is shaped by cultural practices and perceptions of islandness. She has previously been employed in tutoring and research positions in geography, environmental planning, cultural studies and economics in Australia and Tuvalu.

Email: carolf@uow.edu.au

Jess Fritze is the Climate Change Policy Analyst at the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) and a training facilitator with the Green Steps Program, Monash Sustainability Institute. In 2008 she was a Research Fellow at the McCaughey Centre, University of Melbourne focussing on climate change and social justice issues. She has a Bachelor of Social Work and Bachelor of Arts (socio-linguistics) and has very nearly completed a Masters of Environment at the University of Melbourne.

Email: Jess.Fritze@vcoss.org.au

Jennifer Harrison is the Climate Change Officer at the City of Cockburn in Western Australia. Jennifer has over 9 years experience working for the Australian Government and has spent the past few years co-ordinating climate change activities with local councils including the City of Mandurah and City of Cockburn. Jennifer has a BSc in Marine Science, which she completed at Murdoch University. Her career in government began in 2001 at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in Canberra where she co-authored a Bureau of Rural Sciences publication on fish aggregating devices and achieved a Diploma in Government. For the next five years she worked with the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) as a Senior Quarantine Officer. As a marine scientist, Jennifer has a great passion for the coast and is committed to protecting Australia’s natural environment.

Email: jharrison@cockburn.wa.gov.au

Kirsten Maclean is a human geographer, working with CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences Brisbane under the Indigenous Water Governance project of CSIRO’s Water for Healthy Country Flagship. She is originally from Tasmania. Kirsten has spent time living, working and studying in France, Burma, UK, Ireland, Costa Rica, Honduras as well as various locations around Australia. She completed her PhD at The Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU in 2006. Her research was partially funded by the Desert Knowledge CRC, and investigated the role of local and indigenous, in environmental governance and management in Australia (two case studies: Desert Fire in central Australia and a Threatened Species Network project in central Victoria). Kirsten spent a year working for the Australian Fisheries Management Authority in the Torres Strait before joining the University of Queensland as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow. At UQ she is part of the UQBoilerhouse and School of Integrative Systems team, investigating ways to conceptualise, monitor and report on regional social resilience to contemporary environmental, social, economic and political challenges in Far North Queensland.Kirsten also works with the Kuku Nyungkal people from Shipton’s Flat near Cooktown, Cape York, with recent projects including a film and a photovoice project. Kirsten enjoys live music, travelling, gardening, keeping fit, bush walking, films and can often be found in garden or café venues in Brisbane enjoying the company of friends old and new.

Email: Kirsten.Maclean@csiro.au

Naomi Rakela is Manager Environmental Services at the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council (EMRC) in Western Australia. The EMRC is an innovative organisation that is engaged in environmental sustainability through the delivery of a range of projects, services and activities in partnership with its six member Councils. Naomi coordinated the Future Proofing Perth’s Eastern Region – Adapting to Climate Change project, a collaborative partnership between the EMRC and its member Councils. The project included a comprehensive regional risk assessment to identify impacts and associated actions that need to be undertaken in order to better prepare Perth’s Eastern Region’s community to adapt to the pressures climate change will bring and resulted in the development of the EMRC’s Regional Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan 2009-2013. The Swan and Helena Rivers Management Framework is another project Naomi has coordinated. The framework recognises that the natural environment of the river system should be respected and managed in a coordinated manner to ensure its conservation for future generations. Naomi also played a key role in the development of the award winning Dieback Communications Strategy. The strategy is a ground breaking collaborative project that uses the techniques of community-based social marketing to raise awareness and change the behaviour of reserve visitors to minimise the spread of Phytophthora Dieback. Naomi has a Graduate Certificate in Natural Resource Management Policy and Planning from the University of Western Australia and a Bachelor of Arts from Edith Cowan University.

Email: Naomi.Rakela@emrc.org.au

James Smith currently works as the Manager of the Health Promotion Strategy Unit in the NT Department of Health & Families. In this position he provides leadership and advice on health promotion and prevention at local, state and national levels. He holds Academic Status as a Lecturer in the Department of Paramedic & Social Health Sciences at Flinders University and is an Associate Member of the Freemasons Foundation Centre for Men’s Health based at the University of Adelaide. James is the National Vice President of the Australian Health Promotion Association (AHPA) and is an early career representative of the South-West Pacific Regional Committee for the International Union for Health Promotion & Education. He is also a member of the Andrology Australia Affiliate Program and a National Men’s Health Ambassador with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. James was the 2007 Premier’s/Channel 9 Young Achiever of the Year for South Australia and in 2006 he was the recipient of the Young Australian of the Year Award for SA. James is also completing his PhD at the University of Adelaide on a part-time basis, where he is investigating men’s help seeking practices. He is married to Brooke, and has two children, Cameron & April.

Email: James.Smith@nt.gov.au

Andrew Sullivan is currently the fishery manager for Tasmania’s commercial Scalefish Fishery. This fishery is a diverse fishery with over 300 active licence holders, utilising a range of fishing gears from seine nets to fish traps. As the name suggests the main target species are species such as flathead, wrasse, Australian salmon and striped trumpeter, however the fishery includes non-scalefish species including southern calamari, octopus and shark. Since completing a Bachelor of Applied Science (Fisheries) degree at the Australian Maritime College in 1999, he has worked in fisheries and marine resource management roles in Tasmania and South Australia. He also spent 18 months working in Ireland for the Irish Sea Fisheries Board during a two and half year working holiday. In Ireland he was involved in fisheries research and development, working closely with commercial fishers to improve sustainability and profitability. In addition to his role as fishery manager, Andrew sits as the State’s representative on the South East Management Advisory Committee (SEMAC). SEMAC is an advisory body to the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) which is tasked with providing advice on the management of the gillnet, hook, trap and trawl fisheries that operate in Commonwealth waters throughout south eastern Australia. Andrew has a keen interest in all things fishing and fisheries management. Fisheries management is a unique field of natural resource management that faces a number of challenges, from resource access, increasing costs and not least of all the impacts of climate change.

Email: Andrew.Sullivan@dpipwe.tas.gov.au

Emma Woodward has worked for CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in Darwin for the past 4.5 years. With a background in the environmental and social sciences she currently contributes to a Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge (TRaCK) research project entitled ‘Indigenous socio-economic values and river flows’. This project works closely with Aboriginal communities in northern WA and the NT to determine Indigenous values and interests in two tropical river catchments. Her role includes documenting Indigenous connection and attachment to rivers and wetlands including social histories of water use, seasonal knowledge and ecological indicators of change in the environment. She has strong interests in the interaction between local communities and natural resources, within both indigenous and non-indigenous contexts. In particular her interests lie in the values and connections that people attribute to shared ‘environmental’ spaces, from urban wetlands to northern tropical rivers. Emma’s post doctoral studies have built a strong interest in Indigenous community-based land and sea management and the policies, programs and networks that facilitate this involvement. She has also contributed to preliminary assessments to determine the potential impacts of climate change, and in particular sea level rise, on northern coastal communities. As a researcher in these fields, Emma is exposed to community questions and concerns about climate change. Given her experience in Indigenous communications, and the lack of suitable information she perceives is available to vulnerable northern communities about climate change, Emma feels a responsibility to involve herself in improving community awareness and in doing so, preparing communities for future climate adaptation debate.

Email: Emma.Woodward@csiro.au

Kathryn Bowen is a PhD Candidate and Research Fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the ANU and an Honorary Fellow in the Geography Department at Melbourne University. Public health has been Kathryn’s field of work and study for the last 15 years, including epidemiology, health promotion, alcohol and drugs, women’s health, communicable disease surveillance, mental health and HIV. Her recent work has been in developing contexts following her completion of an MSc (International Health) and in the last few years her focus has shifted to the links between public health and sustainability and governance. Kathryn’s recent work has included consultancies for the World Health Organization - including assisting Cambodia develop its Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment for the health sector – and she is a Co-Investigator on an multi-disciplinary AusAID-funded study exploring the links between vulnerability and adaptation within the health and water sectors in the Asia-Pacific. She also works on urban water issues in Melbourne. Kathryn was selected as a participant in the 2009 Marie Curie PhD International Winter School on Adaptive Governance and presented a paper to Prof Carl Folke which was an absolute highlight! She is an Alumni Fellow of the Centre for Sustainability Leadership and a Fellow of the Earth System Governance Network. She is also involved in the Environment, Health and Development network at the University of East Anglia. In life outside work and study, Kathryn is expecting her first child in spring 2010. She sits on the boards of Just Change, a climate change and social justice organisation, and East Timor Women Australia.

Email: kathrynjbowen@gmail.com

Carolina Roman is a Geographer and Environmental Scientist, with over twelve years of experience in the public and private sectors both in Australia and internationally. In addition to her professional work, she has been involved in a range of projects of environmental focus, including a European Union sponsored environmental and climate change education campaign. More recently, she was involved as an Expert Assessor for The World Bank’s 2009 Global Development Marketplace Competition Program on Climate Change Adaptation. Her doctorate research at Monash University specifically looked at global environmental change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation in mountain environments through an interdisciplinary application of the policy sciences. Carolina completed her Ph.D. thesis in early 2010, which has subsequently been nominated for the 2010 “Lasswell and McDougal Student Prize” for exemplary work in the policy sciences, an award established by the Society for the Policy Sciences and The Policy Sciences Center Inc. in the USA. She is currently based in Sydney as a Monash University Research Associate, working on a number of initiatives and projects centred on climate change adaptation, policy, and values using context-sensitive approaches such as Q-methodology.

Email: carolina.e.roman@gmail.com

Siri Veland is interested in how climate change adaptation can be made to work in conjunction with time, financial, administrative and political challenges that at any time face decision-makers at all scales of governance. Issues of governance and social justice are intimately tied together, and Siri’s current doctoral work explores the challenges of working cross-culturally to negotiate research and governance. Her research context is Indigenous Australian dimensions of global change, and relies on semi-ethnographic methods in order to allow local priorities guide research outcomes. This approach induced a holistic investigation of global change for the case study site. This involves exploring how climate change challenges interact and compete with other governance issues, hazards and local priorities that remote Indigenous communities may need to balance. This has led her research to investigate local perceptions of environmental change, Indigenous hazards management, dimensions of Indigenous governance, the politics of Indigenous knowledge and history in Australia, as well as general governance issues to do with global change and hazards. A particular challenge for climate adaptation in the Australian context is finding ways to understand and incorporate Indigenous priorities and knowledge. Siri is currently in the finishing stages of her PhD at Macquarie University in Sydney. She has a Masters degree from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) in Norway. Her research was then also an interdisciplinary study, investigating coastal management issues in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where she employed empirical research to identify biophysical and socio-economic processes that resulted in severe coastal erosion.

Email: siri.veland@mq.edu.au