In the area of conservation reporting we’ve taken a leadership role in working with the Conservation Measures Partnership, which includes organisations such as The Nature Conservancy and WWF, to help implement and further develop the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation.
In this context, it was fantastic to see one of our staff, Annette Stewart, recognised recently with the 2015 Fulbright Professional Scholarship in Non-Profit Leadership.
Annette’s work is in systems development, business development and process improvement. She has been critical to helping us implement the open standards and to managing the supporting Miradi software, which helps us plan, implement and monitor our conservation work.
This scholarship recognises her as a leader in her field and she now has the chance to travel to America and spend time with the Conservation Measures Partnership.
During the stay her focus will be on the barriers facing conservation groups who want to implement similar systems, which has the potential to affect conservation globally! We’re very proud of the impact she’s having.
Meanwhile, we’re still very much focused on work to be done right here in Australia and it’s sobering to reflect that almost 80 years after the death of the last Tasmanian Tiger in captivity (in 1936), the same sad fate is still threatening several more iconic native species.
You’ll read about the Northern Quoll and other vulnerable animals like the Plains-wanderer among the stories in this edition.
Over 25 years we’ve been working to protect Australia’s biodiversity, relying on the generous support of everyday Australians who recognise the intrinsic value of protecting nature.
I believe most Australians don’t want to accept the degradation of important habitats or to leave future generations without the magical experience of time spent exploring in the bush, which we’ve all enjoyed. I believe we can choose whether or not we accept this and Bush Heritage will be working as hard as we can to prevent the decline continuing.
Of course, we rely on the generosity of like-minded Australians, so I hope you support our choice and get behind our current campaign. We can’t continue the monitoring and habitat protection work that we do without ongoing support.
It’s not the case every autumn, but this year it feels like we’re entering 2015 with the wind in our sails. As you’ll read, we’ve been grateful for unexpected summer rains in most parts of the country that helped see us through the long summer.
As the cooler weather approaches we’re looking forward to sharing some exciting conservation developments with you in the year ahead!
Cheers,
Gerard O’Neill, Chief Executive.