Louise Arkles, The Ian Potter Foundation, with Ann and Bruce McGregor, Australian Communities Foundation. 

The Australian Landscape Conservation Alliance is a relatively new group set up to facilitate networking between all the various groups that work on private land management across Australia. They hold an annual conference which is a wonderful way of hearing about the latest trends and issues in conservation management.

This year, three AEGN members – The Ian Potter Foundation, the Melliodora Fund and Purves Environment Fund were conference sponsors.

There’s nothing like a 10km walk to launch a conference on conservation, and what a beautiful walk it was – through Flat Rock Reserve to Chauncy Vale Wildlife Sanctuary.

In the Southern Midlands of Tasmania, Flat Rock Reserve is an internationally recognised biodiversity hotspot.

It is part of a range of rocky dolerite hills, supporting silver peppermint forest and grassy blue gum forest. The views to snow-capped Mt Field made a stunning place to break for lunch!

Our guides from the Tasmanian Land Conservancy (TLC) talked us through the challenges of managing this beautiful land, from fire and feral pests to dumped rubbish, weeds and the illegal felling of trees for firewood. Stuart Cowell, Dr Sally Bryant and her team explained the Open Standards for conservation planning and monitoring, and how they are being applied in the reserve. Their knowledge and energy are clearly a vital antidote to years of desecration, with the land recovering and public behaviours starting to change.

With 245 delegates and 65 speakers the 2017 National Private Land Conservation Conference, hosted by the Australian Land Conservation Alliance and TLC with the theme of ‘Valuing Nature’, was immersive and stimulating.

Here are some highlights:

• James Bentley explained NAB’s strategy to embed natural values into business decisions. They’re working with Greening Australia to understand the role of native vegetation restoration in farming profitability.

• Jennifer Morris, President of Conservation International, spoke of the imperative for a price on carbon: protecting nature will be 30% of the carbon solution, and emissions reductions the other 70%. ‘Business needs nature to thrive’ was the message. Have a look at CI’s Nature is Speaking website for an impressive series of short films narrated by well-known actors.

• Dr James Fitzsimons from The Nature Conservancy called for better integration of private conservation efforts across the various types of reserves, trusts and landcare groups – more and better data to align and strengthen efforts and co-ordinate the messages.

• Alan Saunders from the Waikato Regional Council in NZ gave sage advice: frame goals with a positive focus to win resources and gain social licence. For example, when eradicating ferals in order to increase numbers of native species, measure success by counting increased numbers of key species, not dead animals.

• Dr Claire Konkes, lecturer in journalism and media at UTAS, shed light on media coverage:
  • More stories do not necessarily translate into stronger messages.
  • Journalists see environmental issues as political issues, so politicians get the loudest voices.
  • Alarmingly, the discourse around protection of nature has shifted from “yes of course” to “we need balance with industry”, which means protection is on the back foot while environmental policy is being eroded.

• According to Todd Berkinshaw of Greening Australia, restoration of grassy ecosystems costs up to $50,000/hectare – which indicates the value of protecting the real thing, existing remnant native ecological communities.

• Following a video showcasing the work of Indigenous Rangers caring for Cape Barren Island in Bass Strait, Graeme Gardner from Aboriginal Land Council Tasmania concluded that everyone should have the opportunity to connect with the land and do something for it – because the land deserves it.

Several powerful themes emerged:

• Conservation is about people and how they trade-off values. Values and attitudes are the biggest single challenge to conservation.
• We need to measure, cost and account for resource expenditure and resulting changes in ecological health – triage requires knowledge of costs and trade-offs, as well as values.
• ‘Life only makes sense backwards’; have a plan for learning from what we do.
• Business and community are leading the way, e.g. Puma created an environmental profit and loss statement which delves deep into their supply chain and explicitly uses valuations of nature.
• Farmers might not refer to ‘climate change’, but they have recognised a changing climate and are adapting farming practices.
• Use media professionals (for their quality of work, experience and networks) and social media (for building communities) more wisely – Albatross Island is a great case study!

AEGN CEO Amanda Martin facilitated a workshop on Giving for Nature. She said that there is a real thirst for more information on philanthropy and fundraising in general and that next year ALCA is thinking about holding a Master Class on the topic.

The conference was a great way to connect and learn, so we’ll be there at the next national Private Land Conservation conference in Brisbane in 2018.

In summary, energy, ideas, values, and boots on the ground are in abundance, but we need to get better at communicating, collaborating, counting and costing.