Application

This unit describes the performance outcomes, skills and knowledge required to research and critically analyse specialised information on flora, fauna and landscape to develop interpretive themes and messages. It highlights the need for ongoing research to update and expand knowledge.
This unit applies across many industry sectors and has particular application to guides who work in national parks, or who conduct tours with a strong focus on the natural environment. In this context, guides work independently to research and prepare interpretive content.
The skills in this unit must be applied in accordance with Commonwealth and State/Territory legislation, Australian/New Zealand standards and industry codes of practice.
No occupational licensing, certification or specific legislative requirements apply to this unit at the time of publication.

What You'll Learn

Assessment Requirements

Performance Evidence

Evidence of the ability to complete tasks outlined in elements and performance criteria of this unit in the context of the job role, and:
• prepare three different presentations and with each presentation:
• use at least four credible and reliable sources of information
• include information about flora, fauna and landscape as listed in the knowledge evidence
• use appropriate ecological terminology and concepts
• incorporate interpretive themes and messages
• organise information in a logical and suitable manner for presentation.

Knowledge Evidence

Demonstrated knowledge required to complete the tasks outlined in elements and performance criteria of this unit:
• role of interpretation in creating a powerful customer experience
• current interpretive theory, methods and media
• key methods to structure information for different audiences
• sources of information on flora, fauna and landscape in the relevant geographic context
• landscapes of interest within a local region and their general characteristics
• key ecological terminology and concepts:
• biodiversity and abundance
• biotic and physical factors
• carbon cycle
• community relations
• energy flow
• food web
• life cycles
• nutrient cycle
• populations
• succession
• water cycle
• zonation
• interrelationships between parts of the ecosystem:
• developmental processes related to the formation of local landscapes:
• geological formations and history
• soil composition and its relation to plant and animal life and water catchment areas
• principles of Gondwana theory and the impact of Gondwana on plant and animal communities
• major landscape types and their characteristics:
• alpine
• coastal
• desert
• outback
• temperate
• tropical
• major species of flora and fauna within the local landscape:
• characteristics
• commonalities
• interactions between species and the environment
• nature of species and where it is found
• nutrition and life cycles
• roles of individual species
• species harmful to humans
• identification techniques for flora and fauna
• environmental influences that affect landscape
• human impact on landscape
• management regimes and codes of practice for local landscape
• Australian Indigenous perspective on local landscape
• information sources used by guides.

Assessment Conditions

Skills must be demonstrated in an operational guiding environment. This can be:
• an industry workplace; or
• a simulated industry environment or activity, set up for the purposes of assessment.
Assessment must ensure access to:
• sources of information used by guides
• interpretive resources
• equipment used to source, record and store information:
• computer and software
• internet
• data storage equipment.
Assessors must satisfy the Standards for Registered Training Organisations’ requirements for assessors and have worked in industry for at least three years where they have applied the skills and knowledge of this unit of competency.

Foundation Skills

• {'skill': 'Reading skills to:', 'description': 'interpret potentially complex and detailed information on flora, fauna and landscape.'}
• {'skill': 'Writing skills to:', 'description': 'make notes from research on flora, fauna and landscape.'}
• {'skill': 'Initiative and enterprise skills to:', 'description': 'evaluate and adapt information for practical workplace purposes; create key messages, themes and storylines for customers.'}
• {'skill': 'Technology skills to:', 'description': 'use the internet as a research tool.'}

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