Staff profile

With a strong background in ecology of vertebrate pests in agricultural systems, Dr Peter Brown is working to strengthen natural resource management decisions in Australia and south-east Asia through participatory engagement with rural communities. Dr Brown joined CSIRO in 1993 as a technical officer servicing field projects to manage mouse plagues in Australia. Since then he has led research projects working with farmers to develop ecologically based rodent management strategies in Australia and expanding into south-east Asia (particularly Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar and Laos). Key elements were linking biological and ecological knowledge into decision frameworks, understanding damage thresholds and capacity building of local staff. In 2006 Dr Brown diversified his interests into examining the potential impact of climate change on Australia's biodiversity. He then went on to explore various aspects of adaptive capacity of Australia's rural households and develop engagement strategies for rural communities to examine their own adaptive capacity, economic sustainability and social well-being. More recently, he has focussed on working with farmers in Australia and Southeast Asia in looking at what might constrain or enable farmers to improve natural resource management decisions and outcomes and to better manage for climate change in the future. Common across all his work, has been working as an ecologist to engage with rural communities to examine issues in agricultural systems and working closely with economists and sociologists. Researcher ID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/G-2690-2010