SDG 15: Life on Land
THE Sustainability Impact Ratings results from 2026 – 41st in the world for SDG 15
UNSW achieved the ranking in the 2026 Times Higher Education Sustainability Impact Ratings.
In the Nature Index 2026 research leaders: Leading academic institutions in Earth & environmental sciences.
UNSW is a signatory to the Nature Positive Pledge and maintained a net gain in nature value at Kensington campus in 2025.
Wild Deserts: restoring the desert ecosystem
UNSW’s Wild Deserts program is a nationally significant ecological restoration initiative in Sturt National Park in far-northwestern NSW. Established in 2016, the program aims not only to reintroduce locally extinct species, but to restore ecosystem function at landscape scale through species reintroductions, threat management and adaptive, data-driven decision-making.
Wild Deserts is a partnership between UNSW, Ecological Horizons, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and Taronga Conservation Society Australia, with funding provided by the NSW Government. Community partnerships are also central to the program. From the outset, Wild Deserts has built trust with local communities, landholders and Traditional Custodians, including through cultural heritage surveys informing fence placement and local involvement. Close collaboration with neighbouring landholders enables feral species control to extend onto neighbouring properties, while neighbours participate in surveys, species releases and events. Volunteers, students and returning groups including Rotary clubs also contribute to on the ground work.
Wild Deserts works with Big Sky Stories to connect the program with more than 50 schools across far-west NSW. The Big Bandicoot sculpture at a local tourist node was installed in partnership with the Milparinka Heritage Association, while the Talpero Lookout interpretation area, developed with NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, shares the program’s science with visitors and focuses on the entire desert ecosystem.
Wild Deserts also shares its work with younger audiences through children’s books and other educational resources. In partnership with Big Sky Stories two books were launched in 2025, with further children’s books featured in the program’s 2026 updates.
The wider UNSW community also contributes: 430 donors supported Wild Deserts through UNSW’s 2023 end-of-year appeal, helping restore wildlife to fragile desert ecosystems.
In June 2026, the NSW Government extended its partnership with UNSW Wild Deserts for another decade, building on a decade of significant positive outcomes and supporting continued efforts to restore desert ecosystems in Sturt National Park.
Our work
Centres, institutes and partnerships
Rewilding to save species
Australia has lost many native species over the past hundred years, earning the undesirable title of ‘extinction central’. This panel discussed how rewilding and breaking from traditional conservation approaches can help save fragile species and ecosystems.
Fowlers Gap Research Station
UNSW's Fowlers Gap Research Station supports long-term ecological research, biodiversity conservation and environmental education in outback NSW. Its eco-trails, wildlife-viewing facilities and interpretive resources provide opportunities for visitors to learn about arid ecosystems and their conservation, complementing the Station's research and restoration activities.
Environment Recovery Project: Australian Bushfires
Over 46,000,000 acres burnt in the 2019-2020 Australian bushfire season in eastern Australia, including South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. Understanding how the environment recovers from this unprecedented fire season is an important scientific goal.
Sustainability initiatives on campus
UNSW Producers
This volunteer-based group works to promote sustainability on campus. It is dedicated to planting, maintaining and harvesting veggies on campus, including the community-run Urban Garden and has also run Bee Hotel workshops which gave community members the opportunity to learn about how to support bee populations in the local ecosystem and the benefits of bee hotels, in aid of biodiversity and sustainability.
Planting 1200+ trees
MBA and PhD students from the UNSW Business School volunteered their time to help the UNSW Landscaping team plant more than 1200 plants on campus. The event created an opportunity for students to contribute to a healthier campus and the SDGs.
Native bees on campus
UNSW installed a hive of 5000 stingless bees at its Paddington campus to ensure bees keep up their important pollination work in the area. Students and staff had planted native flower gardens in the years preceding the installation, so that the bees have access to an adequate food supply.
Muru Mirrung Trail
The Muru Mirrung Trail, meaning ‘path of belonging’, is transforming landscapes across UNSW's Kensington campus through native planting, habitat creation and First Nations storytelling. Building on a student-led initiative that saw more than 25 students and staff plant 265 native bush food plants across 26 species in 2024, the trail is expanding to create richer habitats for native flora and fauna while celebrating First Nations knowledge, language and culture.
UNSW Sustainability Plan 2022-24
UNSW’s plan includes a target for a net gain in biodiversity on campus using the broad definition of natural value to account for where species live. Five measures were used to track nature value, incentivising project teams to prioritise nature in campus planning and activities.
UNSW Sustainable Development Goals 2024 Report
This report outlines UNSW's performance against the SDGs in 2024.
