Visiting Fellow
Biodiversity conservation, management, and trade; environmental policy at international and national level; conservation and human livelihoods.
Phone: 0404 979 838
Fax: + 61 (0)2 6125 0746
E-mail: rosie.cooney@anu.edu.au

Rosie completed Honours in Law and Science (in BoZo) at ANU in 1995 before carrying out a PhD in evolutionary ecology at Cambridge, the recipient of a Commonwealth Scholarship. Since completion in 1999 she has been working on biodiversity-related research and policy development for a range of international environmental organisations, including WWF, IUCN-The World Conservation Union, Flora & Fauna International, TRAFFIC, and ResourceAfrica. For WWF she led the development of policy on wildlife trade and CITES, and in recent years she has led an international collaborative initiative developing policy guidance on the implementation of the precautionary principle in biodiversity conservation and natural resource management.

Professional Activities

Current research focusses on two (linked) areas: how decision-making and policy responds to the uncertainty and complexity of ecological systems, examining in particular world trade rules as they relate to invasive alien species; and the potential for commercial sustainable use to contribute to biodiversity conservation and rural livelihoods, in Australia and overseas. She is an active member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission's Sustainable Use Specialist Group.

Academic Highlights

Selected Publications

Cooney R 2006. A long and winding road? Precaution from principle to practice in biodiversity conservation. In Von Schomberg R, Fisher L & Jones J (Eds) Implementing the Precautionary Principle: Perspectives and Prospects, Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, US.

Cooney R & Jepson P 2006. The international trade in wild birds: what's wrong with blanket bans? Oryx 40(1): 18-23

Cooney R 2005. From promise to practicalities: the precautionary principle in biodiversity conservation and natural resource management. In Cooney, R and Dickson, B (Eds) Biodiversity and the Precautionary Principle: Risk and Uncertainty in Conservation and Sustainable Use Earthscan, London, pp 3-17

Cooney R & Dickson B (Eds, 2005) Biodiversity and the Precautionary Principle: Risk and Uncertainty in Conservation and Sustainable Use. Earthscan, London

Cooney R 2004. The Precautionary Principle in Biodiversity Conservation and Natural Resource Management: An issues paper for policymakers, researchers and practitioners IUCN Policy and Global Change series, No. 2. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK

Cooney R 2003. Looking ahead - international wildlife trade regulation and enforcement. In Oldfield S The Trade in Wildlife: Regulation for Conservation. Earthscan, London, pp 196-204