This report examines important streamside management zone processes and illustrates them with examples from forest management operations and agriculture. Streamside management zones (SMZs) are special landscape units that include riparian areas and adjacent lands that mitigate the movement of sediment, nutrients and other chemicals from upland forest and agricultural management areas into streams. The size...

The Gillard government's Clean Energy Future package goes a long way to providing robust foundations, but more work is needed in some areas. The Southern Cross Climate Coalition (SCCC) is an alliance of the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Australian Council of Social Service and The Climate Institute. The SCCC...

This report finds that the amount of domestic greenhouse gas emissions cut by the Government's carbon price package could be double that predicted by Treasury. This flows not just from the carbon price itself, but from the impact of the full suite of complementary measures outlined in the package.It is based on the current default...

Peri-urban areas form belts of non-urban land fringing metropolitan centres. They usually contain important natural resources, remnant biodiversity and significant landscapes. These areas are under increasing worldwide threat from development and overuse. RMIT Peri-urban region research examines characteristics of peri-urban regions and impacts of settlement patterns and other drivers of change on land use, vegetation...

This briefing note outlines recent developments in this increasingly important part of Australia’s energy sector. The paper is primarily about the extent of this resource and its development (including some environmental matters related to this) but it does not cover the details or controversies relating to how and where it is developed.