Josie Carwardine
CSIRO

Dr Josie Carwardine

Research scientist, CSIRO Land and Water

See Dr Carwardine’s full research profile here.

Research outputs linked to policy change and decision-making

• Dr Carwardine led the development of the priority threat management (PTM) approach for costing and prioritising the management of threats to biodiversity and ecological and cultural values. The PTM approach consolidates existing scientific information and expert knowledge into an economically grounded cost-effectiveness framework, to provide decision-makers with information on the likely outcomes of managing portfolios of threats for threatened species in regions. PTM has now been applied across one-quarter of Australia and is informing planning, policy and on-ground actions resulting in improvements in ecological outcomes. The approach has also been adopted by other researchers and applied in Antarctica, Canada and Indonesia.
• Through her involvement with NESP Threatened Species Recovery Hub project 6.2 (Indigenous action in threatened species), Dr Carwardine worked with Bundjalung of Byron Bay to co-develop a cross-cultural conservation planning approach and seasonal planning calendar for significant species in the jointly managed Arakwal National Park. The approach combines local cross-cultural priorities and protocols with decision-science principles and helps with communication, decision-making and management in this culturally and ecologically significant park.
• Dr Carwardine works with both NSW and QLD governments to develop prioritisation tools for threatened species recovery programs. The Integrated Spatial Prioritisation tool developed by Dr Chades, Dr Carwardine and others in the Conservation Decisions Team is embedded within the NSW Saving our Species Prioritisation framework, to guide investment in species recovery across the state.
• Dr Carwardine co-led NESP Threatened Species Recovery Hub project 7.7 (A national-scale knowledge synthesis for fighting extinction). The project team created the first national-scale matrix of threatened species and the impact of their threatening processes, and a novel approach for threat management and conservation action budgeting to achieve threatened species recovery. The products from this project are being applied to estimate the costs of species recovery across the continent, to guide investment in post-fire recovery of impacted wildlife and prioritise species for the Threatened Species Action Plan.
• In her trusted advisor roles, Dr Carwardine has reviewed, improved and contributed to the development of policy at a range of scales, including state and national biodiversity strategies, international guidelines for conservation planning, and regional and local plans that guide on-ground management decision-making.

Current academic employment and positions

• senior research scientist, CSIRO Land and Water
• team leader, conservation decisions team
• project leader, development of a species prioritisation framework for QLD project
• project co-leader, NESP Threatened Species Recovery Hub project 7.7 (A national-scale knowledge synthesis for fighting extinction).

Highest qualification

• 2010: PhD, The University of Queensland.

Major prizes, medals and honours

• 2007–2010: PhD top-up scholarship, CSIRO
• 2012: CSIRO Payne-Scott Award
• 2012–2016: ARC Discovery Grant on Planning Beyond Conservation
• 2016–2019: CSIRO Julius Career Award
• 2017: CSIRO Performance Award, Outstanding Scientific Achievement
• 2018: CSIRO Medal, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement Impact Excellence
• 2020: CSIRO Performance Award, Engagement and Leadership.

Roles on government or regional organisation committees

• lead engagement in the development of a Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Pilot Network for understanding the effectiveness of weed management and post-fire recovery in Australia, since 2020
• Queensland Biodiversity Strategy Advisory Group, 2017
• NSW Saving Our Species Prioritisation Framework Advisory Group, 2018–2019.

Links with non-government groups or networks

• member of Ecological Society of Australia since 2005
• mapping conservation futures operational strategy group since 2021
• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) decision science working group co-founding member since 2019
• collaboration and advisory roles with Wildlife Conservation Society, Bush Heritage Australia, Invasive Species Council of Australia, Greening Australia, Threatened Species Scientific Advisory Committee, IUCN Australia.