News Release:
Ecologists gather for conference 'at the crossroads'
| Date 5/12/03 No 228/03 In opening a national ecological conference at the University of New England today, Dr Sharman Stone, Parliamentary Secretary to the Federal Minister for the Environment, said Australia was at a "critical crossroads" in implementing measures for sustainable development. Dr Stone, the Member for Murray in Victoria, said the challenges for sustainable development included making scientific advances accessible and affordable to farmers, and integrating such advances into the structure and function of society as a whole. "This is an extraordinarily important conference," she said, opening the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of Australia, being held at UNE today, tomorrow and Wednesday. The Vice-Chancellor of UNE, Professor Ingrid Moses, emphasised that sustainable development was a research priority for Australia, and that the conference was thus "very timely". Professor Moses introduced Dr Stone, and welcomed conference delegates and guests, including the Federal Member for New England, Tony Windsor, NSW Member for Northern Tablelands, Richard Torbay, and Armidale-Dumaresq Mayor, Brian Chetwynd. More than 600 people packed UNE's Lazenby Hall for the opening
ceremony and the public symposium that formed the first session
of the conference. |
Four members of the influential Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists spoke at the symposium: Professor Peter Cullen from the University of Canberra, Professor Hugh Possingham from the University of Queensland, Leith Boully, Convener of the Murray Darling Basin Commission's Rural Leadership Program, and Peter Cosier, Policy Officer with the World Wide Fund for Nature. The symposium addressed some of the issues raised by Dr Stone. For example, in explaining the strategy of the Wentworth Group, Peter Cosier said that the group had "offered solutions and not more problems", and that it had recognised that "science alone will not save life on earth". "The only way of fixing the problems is working with landholders," he said. "The solutions are not just about science; they are just as much about what farmers themselves know." He emphasised that science "must understand how society (including politics and the media) works." Both Mr Windsor and Mr Torbay presented their perspectives on environmental reforms. The opening ceremony concluded with Duan Pittman (didgeridoo) and Body Moves performing "Ancient Lands" from The Plague and the Moonflower, and the Armidale Sing NSW Choir and members of Sirocco performing "Terra Nova This Land". Media contact: Jim Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE, Armidale (02) 6773 3049. Photographs from the conference are available. Please contact Jim Scanlan at the number above. |
