2022 Festival Environmental Forum Speakers
FESTIVAL AMBASSADOR
Professor Andrew Campbell
Andrew Campbell, our festival Ambassador, grew up on a family farm north of Cavendish. He studied forestry at Creswick and the University of Melbourne, and postgraduate research in rural sociology and knowledge systems at Wageningen University in The Netherlands. He managed the Potter Farmland Plan in the 1980s, was Australia’s first National Landcare Facilitator in the 1990s, Executive Director of Land & Water Australia in the early 2000s, and now reports to the Foreign Minister as CEO of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. Andrew is well-placed to place the challenges of managing red gum country in a global context, as we work out how to feed and clothe ten billion people more sustainably in more difficult climates
Dr Greg Moore OAM
Dr Greg Moore is a senior research associate in arboriculture at Burnley College, University of Melbourne. He has been a major speaker at conferences in Australia, Israel, Hong Kong, USA, France and New Zealand in recent years. He has written three books, contributed to five others and has published some 175 papers and articles on tree biology and management.
Greg has extensive expert knowledge to share with us about our iconic Red Gums.
KEY NOTE SPEAKERS
Talks from the following were the feature of our morning program.
Our Ambassador,
Professor Andrew Campbell
CEO Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
Andrew spoke about the challenges of feeding the world sustainably and implications for regions like the red gum country.
Dr Greg Moore OAM
Senior research associate in arboriculture, with extensive expert knowledge to share with us about our iconic Red Gums
Greg shared insights into biology and lifecycle of Red Gums, the threats to them, their influence on salinity, and how we can best protect them.
Gabrielle Chan
is rural and regional editor of Guardian Australia. She is the author of Rusted Off: Why Country Australia Is Fed Up (2018), shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Prize and the Walkleys Book Award. Her latest book is Why You Should Give a F**k About Farming, 2021.
Gabrielle discussed the big policy issues affecting rural Australia, and challenges and opportunities for rural communities- socially, economically and environmentally.
Greg Kerr,
Senior Ecologist with Nature Glenelg Trust
He is skilled in Natural Resource Management, raising environmental awareness, wetlands, development of citizen science programs, fauna monitoring and habitat requirements, and environmental policy. Greg is also an award winning secondary teacher who loves to involve and empower community members in ecological monitoring and natural history.
Greg spoke about Red Gums as habitat and the dependent species that use it. He’ll also discuss the need to monitor these species and the challenges of doing so.
Roger Edwards-
40 years of forestry experience in the region.
Roger’s topic “Wanted Dead or Alive” gave a local perspective of essential biodiversity needs and our generational human connection to the remnant landscape, including ongoing threats and future opportunities.
Q&A & PANEL DISCUSSION
In the afternoon participants had the opportunity to engage in Q & A and a panel discussion with our speakers along with local farmer and Landcare representatives, and Adam Merrick from Trust For Nature.
