The UNESCO Noosa Biosphere Reserve: a living laboratory.
A living laboratory is an environment where people collaborate to create, test and explore ideas – in a real-world setting. If you’re in the Noosa Shire, you’re in a living lab.
Life in a living lab is about connection – where humans, nature, culture, community, and the economy all interweave, creating ripple effects that influence each other. If endangered species continue to rise, we’ll disrupt the balance of ecosystems, threatening the nature-based lifestyle we all love and affecting human health.
There’s so much to love about a living lab.
When research happens in real environments, the solutions are able to better address challenges. Progress happens.
As a community, we’re leading innovation, tackling challenges, and finding solutions for the future – a future that looks out for everyone by conserving rich biodiversity, celebrating economic growth, and nurturing cultural heritage. Research and innovation converging, to create a future for every living thing.
Learn about the Noosa Biosphere Reserve
The Noosa Biosphere covers Noosa Shire and nearby coastal waters, extending three kilometres offshore.
Geographic location: MacPherson-Macleay Overlap
The Noosa region is part of an area called the MacPherson-Macleay Overlap, where a diverse range of plants and animals meet. Here lies the southern limit of subtropical species, the northern limit of temperate species, and the eastern limit of many inland species. This rare meeting point nurtures what many of the locals call paradise – an area of high species richness and habitat diversity.
Life in a Living Laboratory
The UNESCO Noosa Biosphere Reserve: a living laboratory.
A living laboratory is an environment where people collaborate to create, test and explore ideas – in a real-world setting. If you’re in the Noosa Shire, you’re in a living lab.
River Health
Discover life in Noosa’s living laboratory.
Glossy Black-Cockatoo
The Glossy Black-Cockatoo is a threatened species with critical habitat found within the Noosa Biosphere Reserve. Bushland Conservation Management are employing bioacoustic sound recorders and machine learning to monitor habitat and identify nesting and feed sites to inform conservation management strategies.
Regenerative Farming
Eastwell Farms located in the UNESCO Noosa Biosphere Reserve share how their regenerative farming practices put the needs of the ecosystem first.
Promoting a smart economy in the biosphere reserve
We’re using technology to improve outcomes and find solutions for the future.
Bull shark research
Understanding how our marine life use the Noosa Biosphere Reserve marina areas is critical to a thriving ecosystem and healthy human lives.
Bluetooth koala tracking
The use of technology with solar-powered bluetooth koala ear tags and smartphone applications helps to further research for koala conservation and repopulation.
Acoustic monitoring
Bioacoustic monitoring helps to is used to track this vulnerable species to support habitat protection and growth of their population in the Noosa Shire and beyond.
So how do you protect what you’re a part of?
In a Biosphere Reserve, we are connected. We are wanderers. We are caretakers – so the actions you take (or don’t take) will impact our efforts toward a thriving and environmentally-resilient region. So why not make your actions count?
Because the reasons why we love Noosa are the same reasons why we should protect Noosa.
