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For the Health Cluster a planning meeting with Australian Health Cluster Leads was held by teleconference on the 24th November 2014. In early December 2014 a series of stakeholder engagement meetings were undertaken in Jakarta, Indonesia with both Australian and Indonesian Cluster Leads. Following this consultation a joint Indonesian-Australian Cluster planning meeting was held on 11th December to undertake a horizon scanning exercise for the Cluster. The meeting was attended by members from the University of Sydney, University of Melbourne, UI, and UNAIR, CSIRO and the AIC. The results of these consultations were aggregated into shared issues, drivers and megashocks

The Australia-Indonesia Centre is collaboratively researching solutions to shared national challenges in four Clusters: * Energy* Infrastructure* Agriculture and Food* HealthIn 2015 a Cluster Investment Plan (CLIP) was developed for each Cluster. This was undertaken through planning workshops held in Australia and Indonesia. In November 2014, CSIRO was contracted by the AIC to assist with the Cluster planning process by applying its ‘foresighting’ method, which analysed key trends in each theme towards 2030 and beyond. The over-arching goal was ‘to support the development of CLIPs which focus on priority research areas of shared interest between Australia and Indonesia, and to promote integration, synergy and learning amongst the Cluster teams’. The objectives of the Foresighting Project were: 1. For each Cluster, analyse megatrends and megashocks with shared relevance for Australia and Indonesia to support the development of each CLIP;2. Develop exploratory scenarios with AIC partners of Australian and Indonesian regional development to identify and integrate research priorities within and between Clusters;3. Test and apply the DFAT-CSIRO Research for Development Alliance method to assess the learning and integration achieved amongst AIC researchers as a result of the foresighting.

This document contains the draft Chapter 4 of the IPBES Global Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Governments and all observers at IPBES-7 had access to these draft chapters eight weeks prior to IPBES-7. Governments accepted the Chapters at IPBES-7 based on the understanding that revisions made to the SPM during the Plenary, as a result of the dialogue between Governments and scientists, would be reflected in the final Chapters.IPBES typically releases its Chapters publicly only in their final form, which implies a delay of several months post Plenary. However, in light of the high interest for the Chapters, IPBES is releasing the six Chapters early (31 May 2019) in a draft form. Authors of the reports are currently working to reflect all the changes made to the Summary for Policymakers during the Plenary to the Chapters, and to perform final copyediting.

Protected areas and the natural environment deliver a wide range of ecosystem services that contribute to human wellbeing. Here we examine the value of protected areas for cyclone and coastal protection in Queensland,Australia. Natural events such as cyclones threaten the health or wellbeing of human society however we can plan to minimize their impacts. Sea level rise, as well as an increase in cyclone intensity and storm surges associated with climate change will result in the erosion of shores and habitats, increased salinity of estuaries and freshwater aquifers, altered tidal ranges in rivers and bays, changes in sediment and transport, and amplified risk of coastal flooding that, in turn, will increase the vulnerability of coastal populations.Coastal wetlands, such as mangroves and floodplains, barrier islands and coastal vegetation all play a critical role in reducing the impacts of floodwaters produced by coastal storm events and tropical cyclones as well as in physically buffering climate change impacts. In an era when mankind’s activities are the dominant force influencing biological communities and ecosystems, proper management requires understanding of the pattern and process in biological systems and development of assessment and evaluation procedures that assure protection of biological resources. That assessment must also include the value of ecosystem services and the role they play in disaster and risk reduction.