Jamie Pittock

Jamie Pittock is Professor at the Fenner School of Environment & Society at The Australian National University. His research from 2007 has focused on better governance of the interlinked issues of water management, energy and food supply, responding to climate change and conserving biological diversity. Jamie directs research programs on irrigation in Africa, hydropower and food production in south and southeast Asia, and sustainable water management in the Murray-Darling Basin. He teaches ANU courses on environment and society as well as on climate change adaptation.

Professor Pittock is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, the board of WWF Australia, and President of Friends of Grasslands. He is a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas, chairs the ACT Natural Resources Management Advisory Committee, and is a member of the board of NRM Regions Australia.

Jamie's PhD examined integration between management of freshwater ecosystems and responses to climate change. Most assessments of climate change and water have focused on direct impacts such as changes in volume and increased variability of run off. Many governments, however, are advocating climate change mitigation and adaptation policies, such as increasing irrigation for biofuel production, increasing hydroelectricity production, carbon sequestration through afforestation, and interbasin water transfers, that may greatly increase impacts on water resources and freshwater ecosystems. His research examined how institutions at the international, national and river basin scales managed freshwater ecosystems and climate change. This research focused on the interplay between the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. National and basin scale research involved case studies from Australia, Brazil, China, the European Union, India, Mexico, South Africa, Tanzania and the United Kingdom.

Prior to joining ANU, Jamie worked for WWF International as director of their global freshwater program on conservation of wetlands, water use in agriculture, and river basin management. Previously Jamie worked for WWF Australia on: national environmental laws; conservation of freshwater ecosystems, threatened species and communities, and native vegetation; management of invasive species; and measures to support Indigenous and private conservation land managers. He has also worked on environment and natural resource management issues in the Northern Territory and in Victoria.