Educational outreach, events and programs for biodiversity conservation
At Griffith, we facilitate events, offer educational outreach and programs, and collaborate with our local communities to promote biodiversity and conservation of ecosystems and sustainable land use.
Sustainable Development Goals
Griffith University is aligned with the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and committed to creating sustainable cities and communities and tackling global challenges around climate action, life below water, and life on land.
Events for sustainable land use
Each year, Griffith University supports, hosts and organises events aimed to promote conservation and sustainable utilisation of the land, including native - wild land - forests.
Educational outreach for the sustainable management of land for agriculture
At Griffith we provide a large number of free educational programme and outreach for local and national communities on sustainable management of land for agriculture through our research centres and institutes. Such outreach not only takes place in Australia, but also internationally in Vietnam, the Philippines, and elsewhere.
Read about some of our educational outreach case studies below.
The FOCUS project is an international agricultural research collaboration between Vietnam and Australia, based in the Mekong River Delta Vietnam. The project is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and aims to identify and implement alternative crops and management practices to rice to combat the threat of climate change. Dry season saline intrusion and drought have caused continuous widespread rice crop losses throughout the food bowl of Vietnam, causing a range of production, economic and social impacts. The project has four main research components: soil and crop management; spatial research; socioeconomic and gender studies; and training. The FOCUS project also supports a range of additional projects that utilise the resources of FOCUS trials and experiments. These partner projects encourage capacity building and further contribute to research findings and impact.
In 2023, through the FOCUS Project we provided free educational outreach for local communities of Vietnam and nationally through conferences and events on sustainable management of land for agriculture focused on:
Soil Constraints Training: The FOCUS team recently hosted a soil constraints training workshop in three provinces throughout the Delta. Farmers and DARD staff from Soc Trang, An Giang and Hau Giang learnt hands on techniques to identify constraints to production including soil colour, structure, texture, pH and salinity.
Crop and soil management: Crop and soil management team members from Can Tho University, Charles Sturt University and Select Carbon recently presented at the Global Soil Security Conference in Seoul Korea and at the Australian National Soils Conference in Darwin. FOCUS project research about soil moisture savings, farmer monitoring of salinity and upland crop production were presented
Educational outreach through an Australia visit: Can Tho University hosted experts from India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Australia to discuss salinity and climate change impacts across the Delta's of Southeast Asia.
Soil salinity monitoring: This training targeted over 145 farmers and DARD staff in the identification and monitoring of soil salinity. The participatory training workshops were held across the four provinces of An Giang, Can Tho, Hau Giang and Soc Trang as a transect of soil salinity across the Mekong River Delta. Practical skills that were taught included measuring 1:5 soil EC , soil gravimetric moisture content, canal EC and data recording. Prior to the training, only 34% of participants had access to an EC meter and only 2% had ever measured soil salinity using an EC meter. After the training, 99% participants were confident in identifying signs of salinity and 100% were confident in measuring salinity. The training was instrumental in recording soil salinity data for use in spatial and temporal mapping.
Griffith research supports sustainable farming and helps farmers in the Philippines. Soil scientists from Griffith University have been leading a collaborative research partnership with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research and the Philippine National Government, aimed at boosting the incomes of smallholder farmers and lifting them out of poverty.
The funded project ‘Land Management of Diverse Rubber-based Cropping Systems in Southern Philippines’ (2019-2023, AUD$2 million) and the research relationships it has generated have also been instrumental in dialogue around Philippine agricultural policy through the development of a National Soil Health Strategy, which promotes the sustainable management of land for agricultural use.
Determining the best areas for planting crops based on soil nutrient levels helps farmers to increase crop productivity and ensures better returns, while also minimising further land degradation in other areas. This large research project has developed rubber-based cropping systems, analysing local soil constraints, and developing soil nutrient diagnostic tools and soil management regimes to facilitate crop production and sustainability.
Through our outreach, the project has established local rubber-based cropping systems which have attracted the interest of key farmer groups, local and national government and associated non-government agencies to benchmark for education and learning for how to best upskill small holder farmers as part of the strategy to enhance their income.
Another outcome of this collaborative project is the substantial engagement fostered between Griffith researchers and senior government officials of the Republic of the Philippines, demonstrated during a visit to Brisbane South (Nathan) in 2022 followed by the first Soil Health Summit in Philippines history in 2023. The President of the Philippines, Bongbong Marcos Junior, attended and spoke to the Summit, pledging long-term investment via the national soil health program.
Griffith University was one of the key organisers of the event, together with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development, Department of Science and Technology Philippines and The Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Soils and Water Management, Philippines.
The ARC Research Hub for Driving Farming Productivity and Disease Prevention (2019 to 2025) is funded through a prestigious and highly competitive Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Research Hub Grant and focuses on driving industrial transformation in the agricultural sector. It has successfully fostered outstanding industry-research collaborations with five industry partners (Australian Bay Lobster Producers, Davco Agriculture, Sunray Strawberries, Aquarius Technologies and NextVPU), six Universities (Griffith University, The University of Adelaide, The University of Sydney, The University of Western Australia, Deakin University and Monash University) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Through strong industry engagement and outreach, coupled with world-leading capabilities in image processing, machine learning, robotics, and software, together with expertise in engineering, agronomy, biology, water use, and farming technology, the Hub has already achieved significant success by advancing and incorporating new artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into industrial deployment in both testing and production environments including on-farm AI-based quality control. Adopted innovations have improved efficiency and revolutionized the way business is carried out, promoting higher farming efficiencies and lower production and disease costs, thus supporting sustainable land management and land use. The Hub’s work is of high impact and has proven potential to benefit food production and distribution on a global scale.
The outcomes of this Hub enable higher farming efficiency, lower production costs and disease risks, giving the Australian industry a great advantage in global competition, and creating new business opportunities.
The Food Futures research group aims to inform practice change and policy for improved yield, quality, sustainability and resilience of our food production systems. Production into the future must double to feed exponential population growth and higher demand for fruit, nut, cereal, dairy and meat-derived calories. Simultaneously, increased production must be achieved with improved sustainability and reduction of the environmental footprint, caused by cultivation practices, energy, fertiliser and water requirements.
Our broad research capability spans from fundamental research in chemical and biomolecular systems, to agricultural and horticultural production systems, as well as native and forest ecosystems—all requiring evidence-based strategies for optimised productivity and sustainable management.
Through our research we engage in outreach and education for local and national communities, ensuring our research has impact, while also contributing to the sustainable management of land for agriculture. We do this, in part, through our work with our partners and collaborators across the global including industry, non-government organisations, universities and communities to promote.
Many of our catchments and waterways are in poor condition and no longer resilient to extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent and intense.
The downstream impacts of these events include increased sediment and nitrogen pollution, increased flood risks and damage to houses and infrastructure, loss of valuable farm topsoil from erosion, increased water treatment costs, and loss of water storage. These all require upstream solutions – yet landowners and resource managers haven’t had the resources to effectively deal with these issues.
Based on catchment-scale research, a new data-driven investment decision-making tool has been developed for, in part, agricultural communities. The research, led by Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute, integrates flood mapping data with environmental and economic data, so agriculturalists can explore different investment and management scenarios from a catchment-scale perspective, through an easy-to-use visualisation tool.
The tool highlights the economic benefits to downstream industries that rely on healthy catchments, to help prioritise industry investment in green infrastructure solutions, thus promoting sustainability, while also providing landowners with long-term maintenance and opportunity costs of changing land use practices.
Griffith Agribusiness focusses on education, training and capacity building to support sustainable management of land, and climate positive agricultural practices and food systems. Agribusiness uses education and research to improve sustainable agricultural practices such as reducing fertiliser use to improve crop yield.
Griffith Agribusiness seeks undertakes studies that directly engage in or directly benefit from agricultural activities. The principal aim is to provide high-quality research and analysis across a range of agribusiness sectors.
Free microcredentials and digital badges in orchard nutrition and management and impact evaluation help students in developing countries to deliver real sustainable agricultural solutions.
Educational programmes on ecosystems
Griffith University supports a number of educational programmes on ecosystems for local and national communities. The University runs free educational programs about campus biodiversity including wild flora and fauna for the public. This includes our educational program at the EcoCentre and through CoastEd, which both target local community and school aged children, promoting practical conservation and sustainable use of land, forests, and shared ecosystems.
Griffith also supports and utilises Citizen Science tools including the custom-built Grows at Griffith App, the iNaturalist App, and DNA profiling of koala populations.
The EcoCentre is a key element of the Griffith Sciences Partnerships Office, which promotes and encourages environmental education in partnership with the Toohey Forest Environmental Education Centre. The EcoCentre hosts a number of interesting events and experiences to share with local communities each year including EcoTours, where you can learn about the wild flora and fauna of Toohey Forest which surrounds Brisbane South (Nathan).
In 2023, our programmes included:
Prep to Year 3
Years 4-8
Years 9-12
In 2023, Griffith’s CoastEd offered community events and community education to promote practical conservation and sustainable use of ocean and marine resources (including seas, lakes and rivers). The program provided syllabus and excursion material to primary and secondary schools (supporting them to organise events promoting sustainable use and conservation of coastal and marine environments), as well as local incursion and excursion programs and online sessions Australia-wide. This process aimed to promote collaboration with the local community, in partnership with the local council, to maintain our precious shared land ecosystems adjacent to our beautiful beaches.
The Grows at Griffith project focuses on species endemic to the local region and is applied to landscaping decisions on all five campuses.
The app provides an interactive and easy-to-use database of 300 plants found on our campuses, including wild flora and fauna.
Since January 2022, we have been turning to the public for help with monitoring the movements and family relationships of koalas. This helps us to plan, assess and understand our beloved native animal.
The project sees local community citizen scientists spending time in nature spotting, photographing, learning about, and recording the koalas, and collecting koala scat for DNA profiling. And it will help us to directly protect koalas in South-East Queensland.
Please help our koala conservation.
Staff and students are encouraged to report sightings of animal and plant species using the iNaturalist App. Through the app, Griffith researchers have been able to create heat maps of local species populations, including Koalas.
Biodiversity books produced by Griffith University
Griffith has also collaborated with students, local government, and local community groups to produce a number of books promoting local biodiversity. In 2023, Griffith partnered with local community groups including Native Plants Queensland and the Friends of the Gold Coast Botanic Gardens to produce a book on 80 native plants to grow in pots and small gardens promoting local biodiversity and supporting others to engage in ecosystem conservation and restoration and maintain shared land ecosystems.
Case study
Griffith input into City of Gold Coast Natural City Strategy 2032
In 2023, the University provided input to the development of the Natural Cities strategy by the City of the Gold Coast to conserve biodiversity and ecosystems across the 6th largest city in Australia including on our campus on the Gold Coast where there is an endangered forest.
Contact Griffith Sustainability
Griffith Sustainability Room 0.08, Building N23, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan QLD, 4111