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If conservation depends on people, then community partnerships are the lynchpin to conservation success. The contribution of local knowledge, intellectual capital and volunteer labour not only saves project managers invaluable time and money, it fosters ownership and longevity into conservation initiatives well beyond their projected timeframe. Island communities are socially and culturally diverse and driven by a range of motivations. Hence, if we are to deliver conservation programs at scale, we need to better understand and embed these drivers into program design. We present four contemporary case studies on major populated islands in Australia where community collaborations are building the collective impact needed to underpin conservation success. They contain key learnings about community involvement, to help guide managers with future island planning and avoid some pitfalls.

The Masked Owl Tyto novaehollandiae was introduced to Lord Howe Island in the 1920s to control an irruption of the Black Rat Rattus rattus. The owl is a threatened species in New South Wal...

Restoring the rainforests of the Big Scrub is a powerful restoration symbol for the regional communities of far north coast New South Wales, but it is only a partly realized aspiration. What progress has been made in 35 years and to what extent is the aspiration achievable?