The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists
The Purves Environmental Fund is the primary sponsor of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and the Wentworth Science Program. The Wentworth Group is an independent group of leading Australian scientists. It was incorporated in December 2007. The Group is overseen by Peter Cosier, who acts as Executive Director. The Wentworth Group relies on the personal commitment and time of the individual members of the group and a small secretariat to drive the Group's activities. The Group aims to shift the management of Australia's land and water resources to a sustainable level.
The Members of the Group are Adjunct Professor Leith Boully FAIC, Mr Peter Cosier, Professor Tim Flannery, Dr Ronnie Harding, Professor Hugh Possingham FAA, Mr Robert Purves AM, Dr Denis Saunders AM, Professor Bruce Thom FIAG FTSE, Dr John Williams, Professor Mike Young FASSA, Professor David Lindenmayer and Professor David Karoly. The late Professor Peter Cullen AO FTSE was a member of the Wentworth Group until his death in 2008.
Water reform
The Group continues to make substantial contributions in the area of water reform. Because of their long association with water reform, the Wentworth Group is seen as a truly independent voice for the Murray Darling Basin.
Since April 2008, the issue of water reform has once again risen to the front of the broader political debate - with the ongoing decline in water availability in the southern Murray system, the risk of a catastrophic acidification of the Lower Lakes, and ongoing failure to accelerate reforms through COAG. The crisis in the Coorong and Lower Lakes has become the potent physical symbol of the failure of not only water reform, but the sustainable management of the Murray Darling Basin more generally. With climate change, a climate shift, water extraction and the raft of other issues confronting this ecosystem, the long term solution to protecting this internationally significant wetland is to recognise it as the Murray River estuary and to manage it accordingly.
National Environmental Accounts
The Wentworth Group's Accounting for Nature: A Model for Building the National Environmental Accounts of Australia proposes that we confront the challenge of managing our natural capital with the same discipline with which we manage our economy. It sets out an environmental accounting system that will, in an economically effective way:
- Provide annual national, state/territory-wide and regional (catchment) scale reports which measure the health and change in condition of our major environmental assets;
- Underpin the long-term catchment management and land use planning decisions by Commonwealth, state/territory and local governments, and regional authorities; and
- Improve the cost effectiveness of public and private investments in environmental management and repair.
Positive engagement with Treasury, the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts and the Australian Bureau of Statistics has resulted in significant support for the Wentworth Group's model. At the Australia 2020 Summit , through its introduction by members of the Wentworth Group, environmental accounts were recorded as a priority theme for the Climate Change and Sustainability stream.
Managing Australia
The Wentworth Group has developed a framework for their next blueprint, Managing Australia, that sets out the fundamental institutional, economic and cultural reforms required to secure the long term health of Australian landscapes. To this end, it addresses three major challenges:
- Creating resilience in the landscape to allow it to adapt to climate change;
- Managing the growing impact of population growth and demand on natural resources, particularly along our coasts; and
- Correcting the legacy of history - the overclearing of native vegetation, the over-extraction of water, the introduction of pests and weeds and inappropriate agricultural practices.
Coasts
At the current rate of development and human activity, Australian coastlines are suffering death by a thousand cuts. The Wentworth Group is seeking clearer links between land use planning, natural resource management and government investment in infrastructure.
‘Impact' Exhibition
The Wentworth Group collaborated with the State Library of NSW in the production of its Impact exhibition which ran over the 2007/8 summer. The exhibition highlighted the impact of European settlement on the Australian landscape and featured Peter Cullen, Tim Flannery and Peter Cosier. Bruce Thom and Denis Saunders gave lectures and Peter Cosier showed and discussed his documentary "One Summer Dream" filmed during his recent trip to Antarctica.
Science Program
The Wentworth Group launched its scholarship program in February 2007. The program aims to enable scholarship recipients to become active contributors at the interface of good decision-making and world class science. Recipients are given access to master classes and mentoring by Wentworth Group scientists.
The Group hosted two masterclasses for the first two scholar intakes, the first in October 2007 and the second in April 2008. At the most recent masterclass, twelve students and six young professionals were given the opportunity to interact face-to-face with Wentworth Group members for three consecutive days. Overwhelmingly, scholars have found the program to be beneficial and stimulating and many maintain contact with the Group.
Tropical Forests Program
In 2007/08, the Wentworth Group employed Ralph Ashton, an experienced consultant, to explore the use of carbon markets to stop global deforestation and to restore overcleared tropical forests. The program has enlisted the support of key political and scientific players internationally, leading to the creation of the Terrestrial Carbon Group. The primary output from the program is a framework combining the policy, science, economics and institutions presented in the paper How to include terrestrial carbon in developing nations in the overall climate change solution, (available on the website www.terrestrialcarbon.org).
It became evident that taking the proposals to the international community will require significant financial resources, beyond the capacity of the Purves Environmental Fund. The Wentworth Group has secured an international partner to fund the advocacy component in the lead up to the Climate Change Convention at Copenhagen in December 2009.