#Sustainable development

A PNG–Australian initiative to bring decision-makers together and give local communities a stronger voice in determining a sustainable future for their land and natural resources is bringing early results.

The amount of ocean-derived protein consumed in countries in the Pacific Ocean is higher than in any other part of the world. Providing the best science to inform sustainable management of that resource is vital.

Climate change takes many headlines for threatening the Pacific. However, to secure the region’s shared food culture, soil scientists are working with Pacific farmers to provide precision agriculture tools that could herald a new era in regional farming.

As the world moves to ban single-use plastics, biodegradable plastics are increasingly in focus as an environmentally friendly alternative. However, some plastics degrade into microplastics, others take ages to disappear from the environment, and in certain conditions they produce powerful greenhouse gases.

The problem of plastic is central to creating a circular economy. So, what is science doing to drive innovation. Introducing: The second life of plastics.

A huge amount of effort is going into protecting the Great Barrier Reef - often the kilometres away from where the coral is actually living. Researchers now have a better understanding of the system of erosion and sediment transport processes connecting agricultural land with water quality in the Reef. Critical to improving land management practices.

CSIRO has delivered the most extensive, integrated assessment of northern Australia’s water resources and the potential for further irrigated agricultural development. Big idea, big landscape, big data. Here is why the work was necessary and how the results can be used.

An extensive assessment of water resources in the Fitzroy River catchment points to the region’s largely untapped aquifer systems as key to the potential for irrigated agricultural development.

There’s talk of a ‘food bowl’ in northern Australia. Around Darwin in the Northern Territory it’s more likely to be a fruit bowl, according to a new study of the potential for irrigated agricultural development in the region’s river catchments.