Sarah Bekessy

Project Leader
RMIT University

Sarah leads the Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group. She is Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow at RMIT’s School of Global, Urban and Social Studies and a researcher in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions and in two National Environmental Science Program hubs (Threatened Species and Clean Air and Urban Landscapes).

She is interested in the intersection between science and policy in environmental management and is currently involved in an interdisciplinary range of research and consulting projects, including an ARC Future Fellowship titled ‘Socio-ecological models for environmental decision making’.

Her research interests include threatened species management, environmental decision analysis, population and landscape modelling, urban ecology and education for sustainability.

Publications

Using totemic species to engage students with Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge and biodiversity conservation
TSR Hub

Understanding Australia’s national feral cat control effort
Wildlife Research

Many IUCN red list species have names that evoke negative emotions
Human Dimensions of Wildlife

Five lessons to guide more effective biodiversity conservation message framing
Conservation Biology

Messaging matters: A systematic review of conservation messaging literature - Factsheet
TSR Hub

Messaging matters: A systematic review of the conservation messaging literature - Journal
Biological Conservation

Evidence is key for effective biodiversity communication
Trends in Ecology & Evolution

Science for Saving Species Magazine Issue 12 Winter 2019
TSR Hub

Learning from the outcomes of a nest box program
TSR Hub

Tweeting for their lives: Visibility of threatened species on Twitter
Journal for Nature Conservation

A quantitative framework for evaluating the impact of biodiversity offset policies
Biological Conservation

Grappling with the social dimensions of novel ecosystems
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

Neither hope nor fear: Empirical evidence should drive biodiversity conservation strategies
Trends in Ecology & Evolution

Landholders’ participation in biodiverse carbon plantings
TSR Hub

Improving communication and community buy-in to threatened species conservation
TSR Hub

The economics of threatened species management
TSR Hub

Purchase, protect, resell, repeat: an effective process for conserving biodiversity on private land?
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

Ask not what nature can do for you: A critique of ecosystem services as a communication strategy
Biological Conservation

Targeting Australia’s highest biodiversity impact behaviours
TSR Hub

Iconic Species in Schools project summary
TSR Hub

Protecting nature on private land using revolving funds: Assessing property suitability.
Biological Conservation

Citizen science for threatened species conservation and building community support
TSR Hub

Conservation Opportunities Research Summit 2017
Threatened Species Recovery Hub

Rethinking social barriers to effective adaptive management
Environmental Management

Beyond advocacy: Making space for conservation scientists in public debate
Conservation Letters

The money or the trees: What drives landholders participation in biodiverse carbon plantings?
Global Ecology and Conservation

Framing the private land conservation conversation: Strategic framing of the benefits of conservation participation could increase landholder engagement
Environmental Science & Policy

Taming a wicked problem: Resolving controversies in biodiversity offsetting
BioScience

The role of social networks and trusted peers in promoting biodiverse carbon plantings
Australian Geographer