Guest editorial - make decisions based on knowledge

Research is an essential driver for any knowledge-based conservation program. Effective conservation needs to be knowledge-based to both identify and respond to issues and to be able to critically evaluate management effectiveness.

When data was assembled for nomination of the Wet Tropics as World Heritage in the 1980s, it became the first stocktake of our knowledge of the conservation attributes and values of this complex landscape. It seemed at the time to be a mountain of accumulated knowledge but, 25 years later, it is clear that there was much we didn’t know then and indeed still don’t know.

The more we learn through research, the more we learn that there is so much more to learn. Much of the early years of knowledge generation in the Wet Tropics was about what and where - species records and the geographic distribution of species and vegetation communities. After listing of the Wet Tropics, the advent of the Cairns campus of James Cook University, the establishment of CRC TREM and the collaboration of CSIRO Atherton, research turned to answering the ecological questions.

Some of that research generated results of immediate benefit to decision-making such as the habitat connectivity needs of some species confronted with powerline clearings. Some of the research produced valuable information about changes in vegetation in response to past climate change, including evidence of eucalypt forest in sites now occupied by rainforest. The focus has now turned to predictive modeling of responses to future climate change - of critical importance to planning the very future of the Wet Tropics.

This is the age of rapid decision-making and sometimes that means making hard decisions. Far better that our decision-making is based on knowledge than ignorance. And  far better that we continue to learn, improve and share our knowledge.

Peter Hitchcock AM

World Heritage Advisor

Former Executive Director of Wet Tropics Management Authority