Sandpit to Seed
The TNQ Drought Hub is excited to be working with James Cook University researchers to help them move their research ideas that could improve agricultural adaption, sustainability and resilience towar...
The Cairns Institute welcomed its newest member; Mitchell Sheppard (pictured above) who joins the Tropical Development team led by Professor Allan Dale. The team includes Jennifer McHugh and Hurriyet Babacan. Mitchell’s role is a Strategic Regional Planner in the Research and Innovation Division of the Cairns institute. Mitchell has strong interests in environmental policy and adaptive and resilient governance systems that improve biodiversity protection and conservation, build systems’ resilience and adaptive capacity, and deliver strong and sustainable outcomes for regional communities and economies.
Mitchell completed his Bachelor of Laws (Class I Honours) and Bachelor of Science (Zoology and Ecology Major) with JCU. His research thesis explored the need for strong and proactive conservation laws to address the dynamic and complex threat of climate change. It proposed adaptive and resilience based governance approaches to reforming the EPBC Act to improve protection and conservation of species vulnerable to climate change. This was evidenced by the state of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area and the current implementation of the EPBC Act. Mitchell has also studied the impacts of climate change in Fiji which provided valuable, on-ground perspectives of communities facing disproportionate and multifaceted social, economic and environmental challenges.
Mitchell has experience as a law clerk/legal administrator which provided exposure to agribusiness and landholder negotiations with large development proponents. He also recently undertook a graduate policy officer program with the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment which provided opportunities to work on national climate adaptation policies and EPBC Act reform.
The TNQ Drought Hub is excited to be working with James Cook University researchers to help them move their research ideas that could improve agricultural adaption, sustainability and resilience towar...
The TNQ Drought Hub recently hosted the National Soils Advocate, the Honourable Penelope Wensley AC for a whirlwind 2-day field trip visiting numerous soils restoration and rehabilitation sites to lea...
On 1 August, The Cairns Institute hosted a small, informal symposium for HDR students working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Far North Queensland. It brought together Indigenous...
The Cairns Institute Fellow Dr Kearrin Sims coordinates the JCU Research Ethical Development Symposium, now in its second year. It will be held 27-29 September at The Cairns Institute. This year will ...
The Developing Northern Australia Conference returned to Darwin this year in 2023. In 2021, the conference converted to an online event an hour before the program was due to begin due to a sudden NT C...
The Cairns Institute will host an informal symposium for HDR students working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Far North Queensland. This symposium will explore if and how post-gr...
TNQ Drought Hub’s Professor Allan Dale, Doctor Jane Oorschot and Ms Kara Worth were invited to speak at the Science to Practice Forum and share their experience on innovative tools and practices...
Congratulations to the TNQ Drought Hub drought resilience scholarship recipients. The hub recently offered scholarship opportunities to JCU students who were interested in undertaking an Honours or Ma...
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