Thank you for joining us

The Biodiversity Conference 2023 met on Whadjuk Noongar boodjar (Crawley) Western Australia from 10 to 12 October 2023. Traditional Owners, Indigenous organisations, academics, environmental consultants, government and non-government organisations, and industry came together to address the local biodiversity crisis. We met days before The Voice Referendum and days after Kew Gardens published the fifth edition of the State of the World’s Plants and Fungi. Based on sharing knowledge under our theme ‘Listen to Country’, 650 conference delegates collectively make the following statement:

1. We acknowledge at least 65,000 years of Indigenous environmental stewardship in Australia.
2. As a community, we pledge to collaborate in an open and respectful manner, and to be inclusive of Traditional knowledge and modern science, to better inform biodiversity conservation.
3. Human wellbeing and our sense of place is connected to biological diversity. Moreover, biological diversity has intrinsic value, and its conservation is critical for both reasons.
4. The biodiversity crisis is profoundly apparent in Western Australia and is compounded by climate change on land and in the ocean, resource extraction, agriculture, invasive species (e.g., cane toads, feral cats, gamba grass). The scale of the crisis requires innovation and working together with industry to develop new tools (e.g., eDNA, artificial intelligence, drones), and mechanisms (e.g., natural capital accounting) to finance biodiversity recovery.
5. We support the development of a world-leading restoration economy that provides meaningful work for next-generation scientists, practitioners, and Traditional Owners.
6. Working to address the biodiversity crisis is challenging. Meeting as a group to share the burden, learn from mistakes and especially to celebrate good news, is critical to retaining hope and for recruiting skilled and informed environmental leaders including land/sea country management practitioners. The next Biodiversity Conference will be held in Western Australia in 2025.

Acknowledgement

We acknowledge the traditional custodians throughout Western Australia and their continuing connection to the land, waters and community. We pay our respects to all members of the Aboriginal communities and their cultures; and to Elders both past and present.