How resilient is the social licence of energy cropping?

Energy cropping is well established in many countries, from Brazilian sugarcane to US corn ethanol to woody crops like poplar in Europe. Australia offers significant potential for energy crop expansion, especially as advances are made around cellulosic biofuels from woody biomass. A potential threat to this expansion is the criticism energy cropping has attracted, from the food vs fuel debate to the clearing of tropical rainforests for oil palm. One response has been the development of sustainability criteria and standards to ensure that governments do not promote forms of bioenergy that pose such threats. However, this alone may not be enough to ensure that energy cropping systems are able to earn and maintain a ‘social licence to operate’ from affected communities. The phrase ‘social licence to operate’ first emerged in the mining sector in the 1990s to describe the extent to which society is prepared to accept the resource use practices of private companies. It has since been applied to activities such as windfarms and agriculture. Energy cropping are well suited to analysis using the social licence concept because it presents not only environmental risks (which may threaten its social licence), but also potential benefits such as climate change mitigation and landscape protection, which may strengthen its social licence. This paper considers not only which energy crops currently have a social licence to operate, but also how resilient this social licence is likely to be in response to unexpected shocks and controversies. It will draw on lessons from overseas, where certain energy crops have shown signs of losing their social licence (e.g. first-generation biofuel crops in the EU) and other sectors, such as pulpwood plantations in southern Australia. The fact that a particular innovation offers an environmental benefit is no guarantee that it will obtain a social licence from affected communities, with a prominent example being opposition to wind farms in parts of Australia (Hall et al. 2015). However, if environmentally-beneficial practices are unable to earn and maintain a social licence, there is a risk that they may fail before their potential benefits are realised

From importing innovations to co-producing them: Transdisciplinary approaches to the development of online land management tools

While traditional approaches to innovation diffusion often assume that innovations come from outside a local system, transdisciplinary co-production offers an alternative paradigm in which local stakeholders are engaged as co-producers of innovations. The use of digital online tools for agriculture, conservation, and citizen science is an area of expanding opportunities, but landholders are often dependent on tools developed outside their local communities. This article looks at the potential for transdisciplinary co-production to be used as a framework for more participatory development of digital online land management tools, with a case study from the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. This research has implications beyond rural land management to other industries and contexts where reflexive and integrative strategies are needed to overcome barriers to stakeholder participation and engagement with new technologies

Developing online tools for increased landholder collaboration in landscape scale conservation and production

This research is part of a two-year project that aims to develop models and tools for incentivising on-ground collaboration on cross-property conservation and production activities. The focus of the study is the NSW Central Tablelands and Central West, particularly the areas around Mudgee-Rylstone and Cowra-Boorowa. The project involves: - Social analysis to identify types of activities and organisational structures that foster collaboration - Spatial analysis to determine how these activities could be linked strategically to deliver landscape-scale impacts outcomes -The development of an online GIS-based tool for use by landholders and other stakeholders in identifying opportunities for collaboration

Landscape scale conservation: incentives for cross-property action

Production landscapes are critical for biodiversity conservation. Individual landholders can contribute but the real challenge is coordinated cross-property action at a landscape scale. This paper describes 2 projects through which we have attempted to better understand that challenge. The ‘Communities in Landscapes’ project (Caring for Our Country 2009-2012) provided coordinated advice and training to develop cross-property biodiversity plans and $70k for each of 7 landholder groups for the initial phase of the implementation. The project generated collaboration on landscape scale biodiversity conservation, but without ongoing support the benefits achieved could be soon lost. The ‘Increasing landholder collaboration for landscape scale conservation’ project (NSW Environmental Trust 2016-2017) is exploring the nature and extent of collaboration, and the opportunities provided by collaboration for public and private benefit. The vision is for landholders to develop ‘Landscape Corporations’ which are the vehicle for integrating production and conservation for landholders sharing the same landscape

Mortality and pulmonary complications in patients undergoing surgery with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection: an international cohort study

Background: The impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on postoperative recovery needs to be understood to inform clinical decision making during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study reports 30-day mortality and pulmonary complication rates in patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: This international, multicentre, cohort study at 235 hospitals in 24 countries included all patients undergoing surgery who had SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed within 7 days before or 30 days after surgery. The primary outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality and was assessed in all enrolled patients. The main secondary outcome measure was pulmonary complications, defined as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or unexpected postoperative ventilation. Findings: This analysis includes 1128 patients who had surgery between Jan 1 and March 31, 2020, of whom 835 (74·0%) had emergency surgery and 280 (24·8%) had elective surgery. SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed preoperatively in 294 (26·1%) patients. 30-day mortality was 23·8% (268 of 1128). Pulmonary complications occurred in 577 (51·2%) of 1128 patients; 30-day mortality in these patients was 38·0% (219 of 577), accounting for 81·7% (219 of 268) of all deaths. In adjusted analyses, 30-day mortality was associated with male sex (odds ratio 1·75 [95% CI 1·28–2·40], p\textless0·0001), age 70 years or older versus younger than 70 years (2·30 [1·65–3·22], p\textless0·0001), American Society of Anesthesiologists grades 3–5 versus grades 1–2 (2·35 [1·57–3·53], p\textless0·0001), malignant versus benign or obstetric diagnosis (1·55 [1·01–2·39], p=0·046), emergency versus elective surgery (1·67 [1·06–2·63], p=0·026), and major versus minor surgery (1·52 [1·01–2·31], p=0·047). Interpretation: Postoperative pulmonary complications occur in half of patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection and are associated with high mortality. Thresholds for surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic should be higher than during normal practice, particularly in men aged 70 years and older. Consideration should be given for postponing non-urgent procedures and promoting non-operative treatment to delay or avoid the need for surgery. Funding: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, Bowel and Cancer Research, Bowel Disease Research Foundation, Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons, British Association of Surgical Oncology, British Gynaecological Cancer Society, European Society of Coloproctology, NIHR Academy, Sarcoma UK, Vascular Society for Great Britain and Ireland, and Yorkshire Cancer Research

Applying the principles of conservation through sustainable use to the commercial kangaroo harvest in New South Wales, Australia

As has been outlined elsewhere in this volume, there is a strong body of international evidence to show that when local people gain value from the sustainable use of wildlife, they have an incentive to maintain that wildlife and the ecosystems that support it (Webb 2002; Hutton & Leader-Williams 2003). This phenomenon, known as conservation through sustainable use or CSU (Webb 2002), has been acknowledged in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and elucidated through its Addis Ababa Principles and Guidelines for the Sustainable Use of Biodiversity (CBD 2004). If these guidelines are conscientiously applied, they should ensure that use is both sustainable and generates incentives for conservation where the situation is appropriate. These principles will be referred to here as the CSU principles

Optimising revegetation management for regent honeyeater recovery: Final Report to NSW Environmental Trust

Final report to funding body upon completion of projec

Revegetation, bioenergy and sustainable use in the New South Wales central west

Revegetation of heavily-cleared forest and woodland ecosystems is a widespread natural resource management (NRM) goal in Australia, including in the region that is the focus of this chapter – the central west of New South Wales. Tree plantings that generate commercial returns for landholders could help to promote greater uptake of revegetation practices. Bioenergy, in the form of electricity generation, industrial heat or transport fuels, has been suggested by a number of authors as an option to drive establishment of such plantations (for example, Howard & Ozlack 2004; Bell 2005; Total Catchment Management Services 2008). The idea of harnessing commercial drivers such as bioenergy production to promote revegetation raises a number of issues around the concepts of ecological restoration and sustainable use. Harvesting biomass from replanted ecosystems can create incentives for both the maintenance of such ecosystems and the establishment of more plantings. However, trade-offs are also likely to be required between ecological and economic objectives. Such trade-offs, as well as undesirable side-effects, have become increasingly topical for bioenergy production. Recent expansion of bioenergy crops, particularly for liquid biofuels, has demonstrated the capacity for bioenergy to act as both a driver of positive change through both revegetation and climate change mitigation (Simpson et al. 2009; URS Australia 2009), and a driver of negative change through deforestation, increased carbon emissions, dispossession and competition with food production (Gallagher 2008). This chapter explores whether the concept of sustainable use may have applicability for revegetation activities that seek to harness the commercial driver of bioenergy to deliver NRM objectives. Two case studies in the central west of New South Wales are explored in order to identify potentially viable revegetation strategies and highlight implications for policymaker