The overarching conference theme is Building Resilience through Innovation.
We live in a time of rapid change that demands collaborative spirit and innovative thinking to support our natural environment, effectively manage our coasts and waterways, protect our biodiversity, engage and build communities and motivate appropriate policy and planning responses.
More than ever we are being called to build resilience, and in response we have created impressive and wide-spread innovation. This conference will explore and expand on the approaches which have already been developed, and look towards key learnings to help us continue to adapt and grow in the future. It will showcase speakers who are using innovation to change the way we care for our natural environment, and the bold and courageous steps they took in an effort to try something new. It will also pay homage to the enduring champions and carers of Country, whose deep roots and consistent efforts have enabled this movement to bloom and grow.
This conference brings together environmental managers, coastal planners, practitioners, volunteers, Traditional Custodians, researchers, and businesses to share our experiences and knowledge, and our passion and visions for the future. Both coastal and natural resource management/Landcare themes will be discussed, with some concurrent sessions to investigate over-lapping issues.
Subthemes:
Adaption & Innovation in a Changing World
Our Coast, Our Land
Healthy Systems, Healthy People
Collaboration and Partnerships – Working Together
Adaption & Innovation in a Changing World
In response to rapid change and new and unexpected challenges, we are being called to build resilience more than ever before. To do this, we need to take the best of the tools and approaches currently available, and use them to inform and inspire new ideas and initiatives. Through Adaptation and Innovation in a Changing World, we look back over key lessons learned and toward new possibilities for 2022 and beyond.
- Pushing boundaries and new approaches
- Technology and data for environmental and coastal management
- Adaptive management to climate change and sea level rise
- Community/landholder action
- Changing challenges and changing needs
- Fire and fuel load management
- Renewable energy
- Stewardship for the future
- Engaging for change
- Sustainable Development Goals
Our Coast, Our Land
Drawing on rich conversation from the 2019 conference, this stream focuses on improving and protecting our natural environment, coasts and waterways. Our Coast, Our Land will highlight the inherent “rights” of our environment and of our people to be able to co-exist with thriving ecosystems, the need to work across the boundaries of ownership, and the importance of interconnected management and knowledge-sharing.
- Traditional Ownership and management
- Planning and policy for conservation and protection
- Regenerative agriculture and aquaculture
- Fire
- Biosecurity – pest plants and feral species management
- On-ground management
- Native wildlife protection
- Climate change – avoidance, threats and impacts
- Coast, waterways, marine and estuaries
- Threatened species conservation
Healthy Systems, Healthy People
From ecosystems to social structures and culture to economy, we are all part of a larger system. In Healthy Systems, Healthy People, we ask “How do we effectively plan and act for ultimate system health, and also ensure we have a positive impact on the systems around us?”
- Planning and policy
- Urban greening and heat islands
- Environment and health (mental and physical)
- Act, Belong, Commit – environmental despair and depression, resilience in children and young adults
- Regenerative agriculture and aquaculture
- Sustainable food production
- Connecting with Country
- Native vegetation health
- Soil health
Collaboration and Partnerships – Working Together
What would a State NRM and Coastal Conference be without celebrating the people who make positive change every day? In Collaboration and Partnerships – Working Together, we create a space to recognise and celebrate the people who make everything possible, and highlight the importance of collaboration in creating a way forward that works for 100% of life.
- Research
- Multi-stakeholder partnerships
- Project partnerships
- Community action
- Citizen science
- Community engagement
- Environmental education and behaviour change
- Volunteer management
- Data sharing and accessibility
- The next generation of land and coast carers