Background:  

I completed a Bachelor of Science with honours in Zoology at the University of Melbourne. Before commencing my PhD I spent four years working with park management agencies in Victoria and NSW, where I developed an interest in monitoring and evaluation and improving the effectiveness of conservation actions.

Study Area: Managing the Natural Environment

Project Title: Validating assessments of management effectiveness for protected areas in Australia

Project outline: My research centres on the 'State of the Parks' management effectiveness approach, which has been developed in Australia. This tool elicits information from park mangers about their success in using management actions to achieve conservation objectives. I'm interested in measuring the precision and accuracy of this information and considering how both can be enhanced to provide the most valuable information about management performance.  

Advisors:

Principal: Marc Hockings
Other: Bill Carter, Grant Wardell-Johnson, Hugh Possingham

Collaborating Organisations:

The Ecology Centre, Parks Victoria, NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.

Publication list:

Peer-reviewed publications:

• Cook, C.N., Hockings, M., Carter, B.(R.W.) (In Press) Conservation in the dark? The information used to support management decisions. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
• Cook, C.N., Morgan, D.G., Marshall, D.J. (In Press) Re-evaluating suitable habitat for reintroductions: lessons learnt from the eastern barred bandicoot (Perameles gunnii) recovery program. Animal Conservation.
• Hockings, M., Cook, C.N., Carter, B.(R.W.), James, R. (2009) Accountability, reporting or management improvement? Development of a State of the Parks assessment system in New South Wales, Australia. Environmental Management, 43: 1013-1025
• Bottrill, M., L. N. Joseph, J. Carwardine, M. Bode, C. Cook, E. T. Game, H.
  Grantham, S. Kark, S. Linke, E. McDonald-Madden, R. L. Pressey, S. Walker, K. A. Wilson, and H. P. Possingham. (In press) Is conservation triage just smart decision-making? Trends in Ecology & Evolution.
• van Klinken, R.D., Lukitsch, B and Cook, C.N. (in press) Interaction between seed dormancy-release mechanism, environment and seed bank strategy for a widely distributed perennial legume (Parkinsonia aculeata, Caesalpinaceae). Annals of Botany.
• Marshall, D.J., Cook, C.N., and Emlet, R.B. (2006) Offspring size effects mediate competitive interactions in a colonial marine invertebrate. Ecology, 87(1): 214-225
• Marshall, D.J., Semmens, D., and Cook, C. (2004) Consequences of spawning at low tide: limited gamete dispersal for a rockpool anemone. Marine Ecology-Progress Series, 266:135-142.
• Conference presentations:
  Cook, C.N. (2007) Is what you see what you get? Qualitative versus quantitative assessments of condition. Ecological Society of Australia, Perth, Australia
• Cook, C.N.,and Morgan, D.G. (2001) Evaluating suitable habitat for the eastern barred bandicoot, Perameles gunnii at reintroduction sites in Victoria. Australian Mammal Society, Brisbane, Australia
• Unpublished reports:
• NSW Department of Environment and Conservation (2005) 2004 State of the Parks report. Department of Environment and Conservation, Sydney

Contact Details:

• E-mail: cook@uq.edu.au
• Postal: School of Ingrative Systems, Level 5, Hartley-Teakle Building, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia