Dealing with uncertainty is a key issue for managing the complexity associated with native vegetation conservation and management, as demonstrated by climate change research. Climate change has the potential to invalidate many traditional assumptions about native vegetation management, so developing mechanisms to respond to climate change at a range of scales is essential.

There is also considerable uncertainty surrounding the policy and legislative environment for native vegetation management, which has been in flux for many years. Improving our ability to predict future risk should help address this uncertainty, and ensure that future management decisions are based on more robust information. An examination of why some styles of fire management fail to meet their objectives and others succeed, focusing on the landscape scale, is another area that encompasses risk and uncertainty.

A better understanding of conserving and managing native vegetation should be developed and promoted through threat abatement at a landscape or regional scale, in a way that demonstrates the potential future impacts and identifies management response options.

The processes of climate change, fragmentation and land degradation exacerbate the uncertainty involved with trying to determine seed provenance, seed quality, hybridisation, and sustainable harvesting.  A working group of eminent scientists in plant biology and genetics is in the process of reviewing the current state of knowledge of these key revegetation issues.  This review will be used to develop more comprehensive seed sourcing and deployment guidelines that account for variability in life-history traits, the effects of fragmentation on seed quality and quantity, and geographic distribution.  The progress and outcomes of this review can be monitored at the Restoring Degraded Landscapes working group website.

Some thought into how the recovery planning process can be better utilised is required.