Current fire management for biodiversity conservation is heavily focussed on individual species. While understanding of species responses to fire is essential evidence needed for effective conservation, it is not sufficient for developing fire management guidelines for whole communities or ecosystems, or for addressing indigenous notions of healthy country, which are more likely to be accommodated by ecosystem approaches. There is an urgent need to scale up understanding of species responses to inform fire management to maintain the diversity, resilience and functions of entire ecosystems. This project will build on preliminary work by developing a robust conceptual framework and empirical basis for ecosystem-based fire management that lends itself to integration with fire management for conservation of individual species. It will apply this framework to develop fire management guidelines for exemplar Threatened Ecological Communities, seeking to engage with local indigenous people in the case studies.

(Image: NSW DCCEEW)