Our Approach

At TactEcol Consulting, we believe that clients require ecological services and advice that are not only evidence-based and technically robust, but are also cognisant of the requirements of other disciplines and comprehend the general business environment and operations of the client.

The imperative for rigorous ecological assessment and interpretation of results is not just a matter of scientific integrity; navigating the regulatory framework and obtaining environmental approvals is often a critical pathway for projects, and a delay in the approvals process, or having to revisit assessment work, can have major implications for project timeframes and budgets. We believe that developing and openly communicating a strategic, rigorous assessment approach from the outset is the best defence against such project risks.

We place a particular focus on the adoption, validation and improvement of innovative survey techniques. Our staff have published a number of articles in the peer-reviewed literature and industry publications, as well as presenting at conferences, regarding these approaches and their efficacies and potential benefits and pitfalls. This focus on innovation confers a number of potential advantages, both to clients as well as the target species, including increased accuracy and/or cost-effectiveness of surveys, less-intrusive (i.e. passive monitoring) techniques, increasing the quantity or types of data captured, and ultimately reducing the uncertainty around survey results (resulting in reduced project risk). Emerging technologies that we have or are embracing include remote camera monitoring (including long-term monitoring and novel camera deployment techniques and orientations), acoustic monitoring (using multiple types of hardware, both proprietary and open-source), and the application of environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques.