Rate My Professor Stephen Garnett

Professor Stephen Garnett serves as Professor of Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods in the Faculty of Science and Technology at Charles Darwin University, within the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods. He is an environmental scientist globally recognized for his expertise in conservation management, particularly threatened species; the equitable involvement of Indigenous Peoples in conservation; governance of taxonomic lists; and regional sustainability, including renewable energy and thermal comfort. Since 1990, he has led reviews of the extinction risk for all Australian birds every decade, producing action plans that have informed the national conservation agenda. He spearheaded the team that produced the first global map of Indigenous Peoples' lands and contributed to guidelines promoting transparent and collaborative governance of taxonomic lists for reliable global adoption. His work extends to knowledge essential for sustainable living in the tropics and governance of global science organizations.

Garnett has earned prestigious awards, including the Serventy Medal from BirdLife Australia, election as a Fellow of BirdLife Australia, the Whitley Gold Award for outstanding contributions to science publication, and a Special Commendation in 2022 for lifetime contributions to Australasian fauna conservation. Appointed by parties to the Convention on Migratory Species as a co-counsellor for birds, he supervises higher degree by research students in environment-related fields. With 628 research outputs, including 307 articles, 242 chapters, and 12 review articles across 51 projects, his influence spans multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals from poverty reduction to life on land. Key publications include 'Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010' (Garnett, Szabo, and Dutson, 2011), 'Biological, ecological, conservation and legal information for all species and subspecies of Australian bird' (Garnett et al., 2015), 'AviList: a unified global bird checklist' (Rheindt et al., 2025), and 'No More Extinctions: Recovering Australia's Biodiversity' (2024). He has generated 150 press and media items, amplifying his impact in conservation biology.