Using the ecosystem services approach in practice

A case study from the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia

CSIRO completed the ‘Assessment of the ecological and economic benefits of environmental water in the Murray-Darling Basin’ for the Murray-Darling Basin Authority in March 2012. This talk takes stock of the research in CSIRO (2012) and follow-up papers that investigate the doing of interdisciplinary science, a survey on how the results were used by decision-makers and stakeholders, the policy risk inherent in the Basin Plan, and more recent research on issues of confidence.

Dr Rosalind Bark is an environmental economist working at Australia’s science agency, the CSIRO, at the Brisbane Ecosciences Precinct. Her research interests range in scale from basin-wide water reform in the Colorado and Murray-Darling to the valuation of water-dependent ecosystems. She also has active research projects in using the ecosystem services approach in policy assessment and how water planning regimes incorporate Indigenous cultural values and community values. Prior to her current position she was a Post-doc at the University of Arizona where she completed her PhD. Rosalind has a MSc from UCL and a BA(Hons) from the University of Oxford.