Last year the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity recognised climate change and the loss of biological diversity as the two most important global environmental challenges facing humans. Unless action is taken now, it warned, two-thirds of the Earth’s remaining species are likely to be extinct by 2100.
Victoria is not immune from this doomsday scenario – 44% of our native plants and more than 30% of our animals are already either extinct or threatened with extinction. Climate change will only make this situation worse. Reconnecting Nature at a Time of Climate Change, a key forum at this year’s Sustainable Living Festival, will take a close look at all of these issues and, more importantly, what can be done about them.
Among the speakers will be Ron Dodds, a former Wimmera farmer now working for Greening Australia and who has a big vision for reconnecting 500 kilometres of native habitat all the way from Victoria’s Murray-Sunset National Park through to the Grampians and down to the limestone-rich coastal plains near Portland. If it gets up this vision, called Habitat 141 – Connecting the Outback to the Ocean, will be the largest habitat restoration project ever attempted in Victoria.
Ron will join Australian Conservation Foundation president Ian Lowe, who will put the global biodiversity crisis into perspective, and Dr Sarah Bekessy, a senior lecturer at RMIT University, who will give a report card on the state of biodiversity in Victoria.
The Victoria Naturally Alliance is led by the Victorian National Parks Association and includes the Australian Conservation Foundation, Greening Australia (Vic), Environment Victoria, The Wilderness Society, Invasive Species Council, Trust for Nature and Bush Heritage Australia.
Professor Ian Lowe AO
Professor Ian Lowe is emeritus professor of science, technology and society at Griffith University in Brisbane, an adjunct professor at Sunshine Coast University, an honorary research fellow at the University of Adelaide and President of the Australian Conservation Foundation.
The author of 18 books and more than 500 other publications, Professor Lowe’s contributions to environmental science have won him a Centenary Medal, the Eureka Prize for promotion of science, the Prime Minister’s Environment Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement, the Queensland Premier’s Millennium Award for Excellence in Science, and the University of NSW Alumni Award for achievement in science.
Professor Lowe was named Humanist of the Year in 1988 and made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2001. He was elected President of the Australian Conservation Foundation in 2004.
Dr Sarah Bekessy
Dr Sarah Bekessy is a senior lecturer in environmental studies at RMIT University and a passionate advocate for the protection of the rich biodiversity found throughout Melbourne’s outer suburbs. Dr Bekessy teaches sustainability to more than 400 students as well as running several other courses in environmental studies.
Sarah is a great communicator and knows how to make science work in the real world. One of her greatest concerns is the impact urban growth is having on some of Melbourne’s richest refuges for vulnerable species, including the south-western corridor of Wyndham where more rare animals live than in Kakadu National Park.
Ron Dodds
Ron Dodds is the south west regional manager for Greening Australia and a firm believer in the need for large-scale habitat restoration across Victoria. Ron is currently responsible for 26 Greening Australia projects, including the Western Coastal Wetlands scheme, which provides habitat for the endangered Orange-Bellied Parrot.
Ron is also working on Habitat 141, an audacious 50-year initiative aimed at “connecting the outback to the ocean” through strategic protection, enhancement and restoration of ecosystems straddling the South Australian and Victorian borders. This initiative aims to address challenges such as fragmentation, loss of biodiversity and climate change by reconnecting and buffering reserve systems [Murray Sunset (Billiat) NP, Wyperfeld NP (Ngarkat), the Big and Little desert NPs, the Grampians NP and the Lower Glenelg NP], improving the resilience of ecosystems and restoring key ecological processes.