Professor of Forestry
Forest and environmental policy, forest genetics, forestry and environmental education
Phone: +61 2 6125 2667
Fax: + 61 (0)2 6125 0746
E-mail: peter.kanowski@anu.edu.au

Peter Kanowski has been Professor of Forestry at ANU since 1995; prior to joining ANU, he was a lecturer at Oxford University's Forestry Institute for 7 years, and worked as a forest manager and researcher in Queensland. He is a member of the Steering Committee of The Forests Dialogue, and was a 2007 FWPRDC Denis Cullity Fellow. Peter was a panel member of the 2003/4 Council of Australian Governments' National Inquiry into Bushfires, and of the Steering Committee for the ACT's post-bushfire Non-Urban Land Use Study in 2003; he chairs the technical committee advising the ACT Government on the selection of trees for the new Canberra international Arboretum. Peter was Head of the ANU Department of Forestry 1996-2001, Head of the School of Resources Environment & Society 2001-2007, and Deputy Director of the Fenner School 2007-2008.

Professional Activities

My research and teaching interests and activities cover both forest and environmental policy, and forest genetics. My work in policy addresses a range of topics, including plantation and farm forestry, forest conservation and management, and forest policy processes. My research in forest genetics began with Honours and Doctoral work in quantitative genetics and its implications for tree breeding strategies.

Some of my work in forest policy is now part of the research program of the Cooperative Research Centre for Forestry, for which I also chair the education program. I lead an ACIAR-sponsored research project addressing constraints to incorporating commercial tree growing into PNG farming system, and co-lead development of an Australian National Forestry Masters Program.

My teaching reflects my diverse interests: I coordinate or contribute to undergraduate and graduate courses in Australia's environment, forest and environmental policy, and forest genetics.

Selected Publications

Kanowski, P & H Murray. 2008. Intensively-managed planted forests: towards best practice. The Forests Dialogue, Yale. http://www.theforestsdialogue.org

McDermott, CL, B Cashore & P Kanowski. 2007. A global comparison of forest practice policies using Tasmania as a constant case. Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry, Yale Univ. GISF Research Paper 010. 64 p. http://www.yale.edu/gisf

Whelan, R., Kanowski, P., Gill, M., Anderson, A. 2006. Living in a land of fire. Synthesis for 2006 Australia State of the Environment Report, Department of Environment & Heritage, Canberra. 22p. http://www.environment.gov.au/soe/2006/publications/integrative/fire/index.html

Kanowski, PJ, Holzknecht, H and Perley, C. 2005. Oceania - islands of contrasts. Chapter 17 in: G Mery et al (Eds). Forests in the global balance: changing paradigms. IUFRO, Vienna. 280-302.

Ellis, S., PJ Kanowski and R Whelan. 2004. National Inquiry on Bushfire Mitigation and Management. COAG, Canberra. http://www.coagbushfireinquiry.gov.au