Socio-Ecological Analysis

I am in the Department of Geography, Environment and Population at the University of Adelaide. Trained as a geographer and agricultural scientist, my research focusses on responses to environmental and agricultural risk in Australia and internationally. A lot of that work has examined the different ways that people think about, enjoy and manage the forest.

Recently, we have been examining the social science of forest management in Indonesia and Nepal for the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). For example, working with the NGO Forest Action in Nepal, we have examined how structural changes across Nepali society are impacting on the management of community forests and how education is key to guiding sustainable development.

• Bardsley D.K, Cedamon E., Paudel N. and Nuberg I. (2024) Forest livelihood values and management opportunities to support the agrarian transition in Nepal. Journal of Rural Studies 107, 103253.
• Bardsley D.K., Cedamon E., Paudel N.S. and Nuberg I. (2022) Education and sustainable forest management in the mid-hills of Nepal . Journal of Environmental Management 319, 115698

We have also been working with working with the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) and the Federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) to examine the social aspects of ecological monitoring across Australia.

• Grympa H.A., Bardsley D.K. and Sparrow B. (2024) The critical social processes for standardising the ecological monitoring of Australian landscapes . Environmental Management https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-024-02049-2.

Much of my research focuses on how better environmental and land use planning could lead to improved outcomes for protecting forests in Australia. We have been working with local councils and other decision-makers to examine how rural land use needs to interact more with the management of forests and biodiversity in general.

• Houston P., Bardsley D., Robinson G., Curtis A., Sarre G., Szabo J. and Urquhart J. (2024) Consuming Landscapes? Farm value-adding and rural business diversification in Adelaide's peri-urban region - past, present and future . Adelaide: Adelaide Peri-urban Project.
• Bardsley D.K., Bardsley A.M., Weber D., Moskwa E. and Robinson G.M. (2021) Challenges to the co-management of biodiversity in a reflexive modernity . Geographical Research 59: 362-377.

Quite a bit of that work looks at how we can better manage wildfire in relation to the forests, especially by listening to Indigenous perspectives on Country. For example, we have undertaken several projects with the Alinytjara Wilurara Board in South Australia.

• Bardsley D.K., Prowse T.A.A. and Siegfriedt C. (2019) Seeking knowledge of traditional Indigenous burning practices to inform regional bushfire management . Local Environment 24: 727-745.
• Bardsley D.K. and Wiseman N.D. (2016) Socio-ecological lessons for the Anthropocene: learning from the remote Indigenous communities of Central Australia . Anthropocene 14: 58-70.

We also look at how farming can better support the management of vegetation for regenerating places, for sustainable development and the promotion of revegetation.

• Pearson R.E., Bardsley D.K. & Pütz M. (2024) Regenerative tourism in Australian wine regions . Tourism Geographies https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2024.2328615.
• Bardsley D.K., Palazzo E. and Stringer R. (2019) What should we conserve? Farmer narratives on biodiversity values in the McLaren Vale, South Australia . Land Use Policy 83: 594-605.