Dr Dean Ansell
Areas of expertise
- Conservation And Biodiversity 050202
- Environmental Rehabilitation (Excl. Bioremediation) 050207
- Environment And Resource Economics 140205
- Sustainable Agricultural Development 070108
Research interests
- Biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes
- Cost-effectiveness of conservation investments
- Incentive-based schemes for biodiversity conservation
- Integration of agricultural production and biodiversity conservation
- Metrics for the prioritisation of conservation investment
Biography
After completing my Honours in animal behaviour at ANU I moved straight into the public NRM sector, spending the next 10 years or so with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority--and for a while AusAID--working on various biodiversity conservation and water-resource management initiatives.
I returned to ANU in 2014 to undertake a PhD focussing on the cost-effectiveness of biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes. My research involved macro-scale evaluation of incentive-based schemes for conserving biodiversity in farming systems and on-ground assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of typical approaches to conserving bird communities on farms.
After completing my PhD, I accepted a role on the NSW far south coast as a senior threatened species officer on the Saving our Species program with NSW National Parks and Wildlife. Most recently I worked for the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust, on the design, delivery and evaluation of conservation tenders and other incentive-based private land conservation programs.
I have also had the good fortune to work in the South Pacific and Africa, living and working in remote locations with traditional owners on biodiversity conservation, sustainable livelihoods and human-animal conflict issues.
Researcher's projects
Commonwealth Agriculture Biodiversity Stewardship Package, including the:
- Carbon + Biodiversity Pilot;
- Enhanced remnant Vegetation Pilot; and
- Australian Farm Biodiversity Certification Scheme.
Publications
- Macintosh, A, Butler, D, Rozas Larraondo, P et al. 2024, 'Australian human-induced native forest regeneration carbon offset projects have limited impact on changes in woody vegetation cover and carbon removals', Communications Earth & Environment, vol. 5.
- Ansell, D, Magrath, R & Haff, T 2020, 'Song matching in a long-lived, sedentary bird with a low song rate: The importance of song type, song duration and intrusion', Ethology, vol. 126, no. 12, pp. 1098-1110.
- Ikin, K, Tulloch, A, Ansell, D et al. 2018, 'Old growth, regrowth, and planted woodland provide complementary habitat for threatened woodland birds on farms', Biological Conservation, vol. 223, pp. 120-128.
- Iftekhar, M, Polyakov, M, Ansell, D et al. 2017, 'How economics can further the success of ecological restoration', Conservation Biology, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 261-268.
- Ansell, D, Fifield, G, Munro, N et al 2016, 'Softening the agricultural matrix: A novel agri-environment scheme that balances habitat restoration and livestock grazing', Restoration Ecology, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 159-164.
- Ansell, D, Freudenberger, D, Munro, N et al 2016, 'The cost-effectiveness of agri-environment schemes for biodiversity conservation: A quantitative review', Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment, vol. 225, pp. 184-191.
- Ansell, D, Gibson, F & Salt, D, eds, 2016, Learning from Agri-Environment Schemes in Australia. Investing in Biodiversity and Other Ecosystem Services on Farms, ANU Press, Canberra, Australia.
- Ansell, D, Gibson, F & Salt, D 2016, 'Conclusion - Elements of good design', in Ansell, D., Gibson, F., Salt, D. (ed.), Learning from Agri-Environment Schemes in Australia. Investing in Biodiversity and Other Ecosystem Services on Farms, ANU Press, Canberra, Australia, pp. 293-310.
- Ansell, D, Gibson, F & Salt, D 2016, 'Introduction: Framing the agri-environment', in Ansell, D., Gibson, F., Salt, D. (ed.), Learning from Agri-Environment Schemes in Australia. Investing in Biodiversity and Other Ecosystem Services on Farms, ANU Press, Canberra, Australia, pp. 1-15.
- Ansell, D 2016, 'Defining and designing cost-effective agri-environment schemes', in Ansell, D., Gibson, F., Salt, D. (ed.), Learning from Agri-Environment Schemes in Australia. Investing in Biodiversity and Other Ecosystem Services on Farms, ANU Press, Canberra, Australia, pp. 193-205.
- Ikin, K., Tulloch, A., Gibbons, P., Ansell, D., Seddon, J., and Lindenmayer, D.B. (2016). Evaluating complementary networks of restoration plantings for landscape-scale occurrence of temporally dynamic species. Conservation Biology, 30, 1027-1037.
- Barwick, M, Ansell, D, Pritchard, J et al. 2014, 'The role of governance in delivery of natural resource management programmes - a case study involving the restoration of freshwater fish communities in the Murray-Darling Basin', Ecological Management and Restoration, vol. 15, no. S1, pp. 62-66.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Spatial Products to Support Deforestation and Conversion Free Claims (Secondary Investigator)
- Developing an Improved Native Forest Management Carbon Method (PROC8833) (Secondary Investigator)
- Victorias Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions Projections (Secondary Investigator)
- Sustainable Farms - Agriculture Biodiversity Stewardship Pilots (Secondary Investigator)
- Agriculture Stewardship Monitoring Plan Development (Primary Investigator)
- NSW Nature Markets Landscape Analysis (2022) PROC4133 (Secondary Investigator)
- National Stewardship Trading Platform Phase 2 (Secondary Investigator)
- Designing a stewardship payment program for private protected areas in Queensland (Secondary Investigator)
- Biodiversity Trading Platform (Secondary Investigator)
- PhD Supplementary Scholarship on the subject of 'Cost-effective ecological restoration'. (Primary Investigator)
