Environment & Sustainability
About
The ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society is one of the few places where economists and hydrologists, historians and ecologists, foresters, geographers, political scientists and climatologists work together on the environmental challenges and opportunities facing us.
Ranked #1 University in Australia for Natural Sciences (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024), we are a major focus for integrated environmental research and training. Through links to other ANU schools, external research organisations and the policy community, we bring our skills and perspectives to bear on issues such as biodiversity loss, water, energy, drought and climate change.
We offer perspectives on complex environmental and sustainable development challenges, drawing on decades of quality empirical and applied research. Research focuses on understanding environmental changes across a range of scales in time and place, enabling the school to provide past, present and future narratives to guide science, policy and management.
The School has a particularly strong track record researching long-term environment and sustainability issues and challenges, and has extensive national and international networks with governments, NGOs, research organisations and the private sector, offering significant longitudinal expertise, knowledge and influence.
Of particular importance to us is our capacity to encourage sound policy and governance outcomes that support sustainability. We offer this guidance through a number of avenues: by providing professional development for policy leaders; training for environmental leadership; partnerships with practitioners; and offering support for those holding governance roles at local, state, territory, federal or global levels.
Facilities
The 348-hectare ANU Kioloa Coastal Campus is one of Australia’s premier field stations, offering a diverse ecology which encourages research across all scientific disciplines.
The ANU MakerSpace is an initiative by the Research School of Physics and Engineering, where we know people learn by doing.
The National Arboretum Canberra research site provides researchers with a unique environment to investigate climate variability, climate change, water use and precision measurement of trees and forests.
The National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) is home to the Southern Hemisphere’s most highly-integrated supercomputer and filesystems, Australia’s highest performance research cloud, and one of the nation’s largest data catalogues—all supported by an expert team.
The CPAS Podcast Studio is open to staff and students throughout ANU (not just scientists!) to record and grow podcast series. Your success is our success: we want to help you make the biggest and best podcast series in the world.
Our new $240-million science precinct on the ANU campus has state-of-the-art biological and chemical research laboratories, as well as a teaching hub.
News
Why does this shy little migratory bird keep coming back to our capital city?
Captive breeding of threatened species for release into the wild is an important conservation tool. But where threats to wild populations remain unresolved, this tool may not guarantee population recovery in the long term.
As we accelerate plans to protect more Australian habitat, we must watch for problems. Land with high conservation value must be prioritised for protection.
![A book called Night Parrot and a woman's hands reading](/sites/prod.science.sca-lws06.anu.edu.au/files/styles/views_image_small_376_211_5/public/20230201_PennyOlsen-04207.jpeg.webp?itok=jA1Yd_wt "Penny Olsen's "Night Parrot". Credit: Nic Vevers/ANU")
For more than a century, the Night Parrot has inspired gripping tales of obsessive odysseys and miraculous discoveries. But now the truth has gotten in the way of a good story. And Dr Penny Olsen is wearing the cost.
Despite widespread land clearing, Australia still supports some of the biggest trees in the world, but we are at risk of losing them.
New research has found 15 threatened mammal, eight bird, four frog, one reptile and one fish species have recovered enough that they no longer meet the criteria for listing as threatened.