More than 100 people from 20 countries are expected to attend the first Australian Student Conference on Conservation Science being held at The University of Queensland from 21-31 January, 2013.
The inaugural event features a three-day conference, three days of field trips and sightseeing in Brisbane and the surrounding region, followed by four days of training and workshops.
The Director for the UQ Centre for Biodiversity Professor Hugh Possingham said the conference and associated workshops were an unparalleled chance for students across the globe to share ideas and make new friends.
“Our region, south-east and east Asia, Australasia and the Pacific, is the most biologically diverse region in the world,” Professor Possingham said.
“From the Palearctic habitats in the Himalayas and Japan to the tropical jungles of Melanesia and the temperate rain forests of New Zealand.
“If the world has a chance to save this remarkable biodiversity, it will be based on the efforts of all the students gathering at this conference.”
The conference will be a forum for discussing conservation principles in both terrestrial and marine environments, with a particular emphasis on managing the competing needs for world food production against conservation efforts as well as understanding the impacts climate change will have on the environment.
“The common objective is the design of more productive, economic, and sustainable conservation efforts to meet the challenges of an expanding population, global change, and environmental degradation,” said Professor Possingham
Field days will take place at Lamington National Park, Noosa Conservation Park and Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.
Sponsors of the event include The Thomas Foundation, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (ARC CEED), The Nature Conservancy and The University of Queensland.
Staff and students from ARC CEED will be assisting media and conference participants throughout the duration of the event. They will be wearing green t-shirts during the conference.
More information about the programme and following the conference on twitter is available online
Media: Professor Hugh Possingham, Director the Environmental Decisions Hub and UQ, +61 (0)434 079 061 or Karen Gillow, Science Communications, Communications at the Environmental Decisions Hub and UQ +61 (0) 402 674 409 or k.gillow@uq.edu.au or Tracey Franchi, UQ School of Biological Sciences Communications Manager, +61 413438348, t.franchi@uq.edu.au
About the School of Biological Sciences
Through research undertaken in the School, UQ has been ranked by the 2012 National Taiwan University Rankings in the top five universities globally for research in ecology and environmental biology and in the top 18 universities globally for plant and animal biology. The UQ School of Biological Sciences attracts researchers of world standing in a range of disciplines, with international leaders in many diverse fields. Our work spans the scales of biological organisation, from molecules and cells to organisms, populations, species and communities. With more than 150 researchers working in evolution, global change biology, ecology, aquaculture, animal behaviour, physiology, entomology, zoology, botany, genomics, development and conservation biology, our researchers and graduate scientists are well-equipped to make a real difference in contributing to solving global problems.
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