Thursday 30 June 2022 – 09:15 – 10:30 AEST
Moderator: Dr Georgina Gurney
Presenters: Margaret Fox, Harry Jonas, Associate Professor Emma Lee, Dr Vera Horigue, Associate Professor Joeli Veitayaki
The need for just conservation and sustainability practice is increasingly emphasised in global environmental policies and agreements, including the Sustainable Development Goals and the Convention on Biological Diversity. As multi-level social and biophysical drivers, such as climate change, reshape social-ecological systems resulting in new inequalities and inequities, a focus on justice in conservation and sustainability policy and practice has become ever more important. Correspondingly, in recent years there have been calls for increased attention to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in conservation and sustainability research, including with respect to how research is undertaken and by whom. Indeed, it is now recognised that justice in conservation and sustainability research, policy, and practice is not only an ethical imperative, but also instrumental to developing and successfully implementing innovative actions required to address the multiple social, economic and environmental dimensions of global sustainability challenges. This session brings together scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and activists from diverse disciplines and geographies to discuss key justice issues at the forefront of conservation and sustainability in Oceania and across the globe. These issues will span multiple justice dimensions (e.g. distribution, recognition, procedure) and considerations (e.g. decolonisation, gender inequities) with respect to multiple settings (e.g. natural resource management, research practice, global conservation policy, climate change mitigation and adaption). The aim of this guided discussion, which will involve audience participation, is to elucidate the multiple pathways through which diverse actors, from philanthropic, academic, and public sectors, are generating knowledge and taking action to advance justice in conservation and sustainability research, policy and practice.
Moderator: Dr Georgina Gurney – Senior Research Fellow, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University
Margaret Fox – Adviser (Gender and Social Inclusion: Fisheries), Human Rights and Social Development (HRSD) Division, Pacific Community (SPC)
Harry Jonas – Senior Director of Conservation Areas, World Wildlife Fund
Associate Professor Emma Lee – Associate Professor, Indigenous Leadership, Swinburne University of Technology
Dr Vera Horigue – MQ and WIOMSA Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Natural Sciences – Macquarie University
Associate Professor Joeli Veitayaki – Associate Professor, Division of Marine Studies, School of Agriculture, Geography, Environment, Ocean and Natural Science