The Sydney chapter of SCB is based at the University of New South Wales, and has members from conservation agencies and other universities across Sydney. The chapter provides new ways for members to learn about conservation on the ground over an informal chat and a coffee. The popular Conservation Café series offers members an opportunity hear first hand from conservation professionals, about their career highlights and challenges.
The Sydney chapter also hosts Creative Conservation workshops where members can attend to learn the fundamentals of wildlife drawing with professional artist Peter Wale. Wildlife managers bring live animals, give a talk on the species and conservation needs. They are great fun and everyone goes away armed with a greater ability to draw our native wildlife (really, everyone).
Here are the details of our latest events, for more details see our Facebook page. If you would like to know more about setting up a chapter in your area, contact SCB Oceania chapter representative, Monica Awasthy.
The Latest Conservation Café’s
In December, Eleonora Bergamaschini (volunteer coordinator) and 3 volunteers (Robert, Georgia and Vinci) from The Wilderness Society told us about their new leadership program: Community organising – for the future of wild places. The Wilderness Society’s community organising ethos is all about inspiring individuals and groups to make change in their local communities; helping to direct their energy to the right place at the right time.
On November 7, 2015, the Sydney chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology hosted Dr. John Martin, wildlife officer at the heritage-listed Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust and Centennial Parklands. Reflecting his deep-rooted passion for working in the field, Dr. Martin guided the captivated audience on a trek through the swamps of the Centennial Parklands, stopping periodically to discuss key findings of his ongoing work in the conservation of the Gray-headed Flying-fox (Pteropus policephalus), and Black Flying-fox (Pteropus alecto). (Thanks to Arun Dayanandan)
Creative Conservation
So far, the Sydney SCB has welcomed Peter Wale to the Learning Center at Centennial Park for inspiring, and successful Creative Conservation workshops on insects, birds, amphibians and plants.
Each time Peter guides about 15 hard-working workshop participants through the intricacies of drawing plants and animals while they hear about conservation challenges. Most of us are beginners, and all of us pick up some new skills by the end of the workshop. Peter keeps his students smiling and laughing as he leads us through a boggling amount of information on drawing.
Upcoming Sydney SCB activities:
- Our first Conservation Cafe this year will be with Daniel Hunter, an ecology PhD candidate and award-winning filmmaker, who researches and communicates some of the most pressing conservation challenges facing our Earth and its biodiversity.