It is approaching dusk as the vehicles complete their five-hour trek from Dili and come to a stop outside the community centre in Baguia, Timor Leste. We are greeted by the local school teachers and shown to the guest house that will be our home for the next five days.

If you were to ask a room full of managers, policymakers, or even scientists, if they should be monitoring the outcomes of their conservation actions, the answer from most would be a resounding ‘yes'. They would argue that if we don't understand the benefits of our investment, how can we possibly know if we are doing the right thing and if our investment is worth it?

Federal environment minister Tony Burke has rejected a proposal by the Victorian Government to reintroduce cattle to the state's National Heritage-listed Alpine National Park.

The Federal Government has appointed Southern Cross Venture Partners to manage the nation's largest Renewable Energy Venture Capital (REVC) fund, a key element of the government's clean energy strategy.

Australia has signed the Nagoya Protocol, an international treaty that will establish a legally binding framework for the use of genetic resources in a rapidly expanding global industry.

Tropical deforestation has been considered a major source of greenhouse gases (GHGs), releasing as much as 1.1 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere each year. But recent research suggests the stored carbon released by deforestation may be less than previously thought.

Spanish researchers have discovered the effects of coastal storms extend to the deep-sea environment and include increased carbon sequestration in this zone.

Reducing fuel within 40 metres of houses is the most effective way to reduce the impacts of severe bushfires, according to a team of scientists from Australia and the USA who analysed house losses after Victoria's Black Saturday fires.

Scientists have discovered strong correlations between effective management of the world's high-biodiversity regions and the welfare of the world's poorest.

Harvesting of native forests needs to be included in the carbon accounting process in Australia. But, do we know enough about the greenhouse gas and carbon cycling implications of this kind of forestry?

Cost can often be a turn-off factor when it comes to sustainable building. But, a study of the proposed Cape Paterson Ecovillage in South Gippsland, Victoria, suggests the tables are turning – building green can take years off the average mortgage and save hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The City of Melbournehas commissioned the University of Melbourne to help building owners assess the benefits of white roofs – which absorb less heat and keep buildings cooler during hot days – in the metropolitan area.

First-year engineering students from the University of Western Australia (UWA) have won an Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Challenge prize for designing a worm farm to help farmers in Tamil Nadu, India.

So often in conservation debates regarding birds, common terms such as ‘endangered species' are bandied about without any great knowledge of what they actually mean. With the publication of the third Action Plan for Australian Birds we now have an up-to-date snapshot of the conservation status of every species and subspecies of Australian bird.

Rising CO₂ levels may be affecting the brains and central nervous systems of sea fishes with serious consequences for their survival, an international scientific team has found.

One of the Great Barrier Reef's most spectacular and diverse marine habitats, the fringing reef surrounding Orpheus Island, is at risk from rising sea temperatures.

Ecuador has announced it will go ahead with its so-called ‘Yasuni ITT Initiative' to leave untapped more than 900 million barrels of crude oil – 20 per cent of its known oil reserves – beneath a pristine Amazonian nature reserve, in exchange for annual international donations.

The Australian Government wants more employers and employees to reap the environmental, economic and social benefits of telework according to the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy.

Survey findings announced by renewable energy company Pacific Hydro accord with separate CSIRO research showing strong community support for wind farm developments – in contrast to media coverage of the issue over the past few years.

An international team of scientists has found one of the rarest and least-known primates in Borneo, Miller's grizzled langur, a species believed to be extinct or on the verge of extinction.

Overfishing of bigeye tuna continues in the western and central Pacific tuna fishery, the world's biggest tuna fishery, according to the 2010 tuna fishery assessment report released in January 2012 by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (Oceanic Fisheries Programme) (SPC).

Queensland's iconic ‘Channel Country' – the Lake Eyre Basin, one of the world's last great natural wetlands – will be protected from large dams and unsustainable industrial development under proposed Wild River declarations.

It seems that small dasyurids in northern Australia instinctively know how to avoid being poisoned by cane toads. Their example is behind an unusual experiment to ‘train' endangered northern quolls to become ‘toad-smart'.

Four leading global organisations have signed an agreement to create a Green Growth Knowledge Platform, a global initiative that will identify and address major knowledge gaps in green growth theory and practice.

Australian researchers have discovered a new cellular communication process used by plants to respond to drought.

As groundwater use soars globally, experts warn of increasing environmental and social costs.

The Northern Australian landscape is a spectacular, vast and wild place. It is a land of crocodiles, dingoes and endless bush. It forms a refuge for many wildlife species that have disappeared or declined in other parts of the continent, such as bush stone-curlews and nailtail wallabies.

Livestock farmers in the Murray-Darling Basin have pledged to allow the Murray-Darling Basin Authority to flood more than a million acres (400 000 hectares) of their land.

Planning for the world's largest marine park is set to benefit from technical and scientific assistance from a range of partners, including GIS company Esri and Conservation International.

Northern Australia features prominently in visions for Australia's future. Plans for capturing, storing and transporting the region's water to make it available for increased agricultural development in the region and elsewhere are frequently proposed. But what is our current understanding of the biodiversity, and the ecological functions and services and of the northern region, and how might these assets be affected by such development?