Australia invests billions of dollars on restoring its landscapes, protecting its biodiversity and managing invading weeds and pests.
 Do we get good environmental returns on this investment?
 Are the decisions we make for the environment transparent,   
 accountable and defensible?
 Could we do better?
How do we make decisions in the face of growing uncertainty?
These are big questions addressing big issues and they lie at the heart of the 2009 Fenner Conference on the Environment. Running over two days at the Shine Dome in Canberra in March next year, this Fenner Conference will bring together a galaxy of decision-making stars from the research, management and policy arenas.

Six big themes
1. Environmental decision making
How groups of people make decisions, the place of science in environmental decision making, lessons from recent experiences in environmental management including target setting and planning initiatives.

2. The art and science of prioritisation
How resources are best applied to specific issues including designing reserves, allocating funds for threatened species management, and investing in water quality and vegetation condition.

3. Adaptive Management
How do you make decisions in the face of enormous uncertainty, and how do you improve those decisons over time. This conference will be presenting case studies on effective adaptive management from Australia and overseas.

4. Monitoring design for biodiversity conservation
Characteristics of monitoring programs capable of tracking change in the status of viability of populations.

5. Monitoring design for soil and water quality Characteristics of monitoring programs capable of tracking change in environmental condition.

6. Tools & techniques for environmental decision making
Spatial and non-spatial techniques to aid decision making, accommodate uncertainty and establish links between investment and environmental condition.