Ian Curtis has been a practising land economist for the past thirty years, having been a principal, and a director or partner in a number of leading property consultancies in the City of Sydney. In the early to mid 1990s, he was becoming increasingly concerned about the impact of development on the coastal fringe in Australia, and subsequently in the process of project managing and co-authoring an environmental impact study for an island resort off the east coast of Cape York Peninsula, enrolled in a science degree at James Cook University in Cairns.

Completing his undergraduate degree in 1998, Ian went on to do an Honour’s year, focusing on the environmental performance of hotels and resorts in North Queensland, including island resorts. Special emphasis was placed on greenhouse gas emissions due to electricity consumption, and recommendations made for renewable energy initiatives and carbon sequestration to offset the deleterious impact.

Not content with how the synergy between land economics and environmental science or ecology could be explained or rationalised, Ian then proceeded to undertake a ‘research higher degree’ that attempted to integrate economics and ecology by way of a completely original and pragmatic approach to valuing ecosystem goods and services. Completing his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2003, Ian’s work received highly complimentary comments from his examiners.

Ian Curtis is available for private consultancy to assist conservationists, environmental practitioners, catchment managers, natural resource managers, NGOs and Government, to actually translate the value and importance of ecosystem goods and services into the public domain.

Download Ian Curtis CV (July 2012)