The quiet beauty of the Brigalow
After two days tracking down Bridled Nailtail Wallabies and Koalas, it's clear that this entire ecosystem is as precious as the species it shelters.
Whether you’re working in the field or behind a computer, conservation can be relatively solitary work. In person events like next month’s Australian Land Conservation Alliance (ALCA) conference, are crucial for creating an environment where new connections can form and ideas flourish.
“Conferences create space for different disciplines in conservation to talk, share lessons, build collaborations, and align our efforts,” says Bush Heritage Australia’s National Conservation Planning Manager Clair Dougherty.
“By connecting local practitioners with a national community, we can speed up innovation, feel good about being a part of something bigger than us and scale up solutions that make a real difference for biodiversity and people.”
Featuring more than 100 environmental leaders across panel events, keynote speeches, workshops and debates, the breadth of this year’s conference reflects its standing as a leading event in the conservation community’s calendar. Hundreds of citizen scientists, students, scientists, Traditional Custodians, land managers and conservationists will travel to Gimuy (Cairns) for the packed four-day program which includes field trips to the Great Barrier Reef, the Atherton Tablelands and the Daintree Rainforest, as well as First Nations weaving workshops, and networking events.
Attendees are invited to consider diverse topics such as culturally-led care for Country, the economic significance of nature, how to engage the next generation of environmental leaders and the role of AI within conservation. The 2025 conference also centres a critical question; how can local initiatives be scaled up and applied globally to sustain positive impacts for biodiversity?
As a longstanding ALCA member and conference partner, Bush Heritage is proud to contribute to the 2025 program. Ian McConnel, who heads our agricultural partnerships and natural capital team, will sit down with a panel including ecologists, corporates, carbon service providers and pastoralists for a conversation about conservation across landscapes. The session will explore how regenerative land management, market-based mechanisms and investment in natural capital are integrating conservation into Australia’s agricultural landscapes.
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Networking at the Australian Land Conservation Alliance Conference 2024.
With 18 years of experience supporting our staff and partners with conservation planning, Clair Dougherty has seen first-hand how scaling up impact depends on strong project management and design skills. As we confront increasingly complex conservation challenges and limited resources, these skills are even more important. Clair will co-host a workshop at ALCA 2025 with Frank Weisenberger Consulting on designing clear, impact-driven conservation strategies. As Clair explains: “By helping practitioners develop skills to prioritise actions, define measurable outcomes, and adapt when things change, it is far more likely that projects will deliver lasting results.”
The workshop is informed by the Conservation Standards, an evidence-based planning framework used by conservation organisations worldwide including Bush Heritage. In many ways the Conservation Standards embody the idea that meaningful global change for biodiversity begins with local action, with each project becoming a building block in a larger system.
“By applying the Conservation Standards at a local scale, such as restoring landscapes and managing fire or species recovery, projects generate credible data and learnings that feed into regional, national and global strategies,” says Clair.
“This shared approach ensures local actions add up to national solutions that lead to global impact.”
Bruce Hammond who is Bush Heritage’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Manager, South Australia and an Executive Manager Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leadership will also play a key role at the conference as a First Nation’s Engagement Host.
The Australian Land Conservation Alliance recognises and respects the deep and enduring relationship that Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples have with land, sea and water, and their enduring persistence, knowledge and connection that has been built over tens of thousands of years.
The ALCA Conference aims to be an inclusive and culturally safe event that engages Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander delegates to attend and actively participate. To achieve this, we implement ALCA’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Access and Engagement Strategy.
First Nations people wishing to attend the conference and access discounted rates should contact [email protected].
The 2025 Australian Land Conservation Alliance conference runs from Tuesday 7 - Friday 10 October 2025. Explore the program and register your place on the ALCA conference website.
