PhD Scholar
Conservation of encrypted landscapes - a landscape ecology perspective of Aboriginal conservation goals
E-mail: lynette.liddle@anu.edu.au

Conservation values are strongly linked to what people derive, understand and know about, and how they manage, country. Conservation in many parts of Arid Australia is reflected in the landscape values of the people. I am investigating to what extent Aboriginal conservation strategies are evidence of adaptive management and a response to ecosystem change. Conservation and its values have an inherent value in which Aboriginal people are motivated to conserve the animals, plants and land units on country. An explanation of their conservation goals, what role Aboriginal people may have in mainstream conservation, and what this role might become are key questions in the thesis.

The aim of this research is to analyse and investigate the values behind Aboriginal conservation and how this is underpinned by linkages between ecology of the land and culture.

Selected Publications

Trappe, J.M., Claridge, A.W., Claridge, D.L. and Liddle, L. 2008. Desert Truffles of the Australian Outback: Ecology, Ethnomycology, and Taxonomy. Economic Botany, 62(3): 497-506.