Three years after the 2019-20 bushfires, Dr Martine Maron, President of BirdLife Australia, is returning to Ulladulla to talk about latest research into tracking the health of woodland bird communities.

Martine is an eminent conservation scientist with decades of experience in research and policy. She is Professor of Environmental Management at The University of Queensland. Her research group works on problems at the interface of environmental policy and ecology, particularly the conservation and recovery of Australia’s threatened birds and woodland bird assemblages. She also works to improve conservation and impact mitigation policy and practice, particularly relating to deforestation and biodiversity offsetting. Martine chairs the IUCN’s Impact Mitigation and Ecological Compensation Thematic Group, is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and a Board member of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. She was also Deputy Director of the former Threatened Species Recovery Hub.

Woodland bird communities in Australia are increasingly under threat. Martine will demonstrate why it is important for us to measure and track the condition of entire bird communities – not just individual species. She will describe current research to identify and map all the different types of Australian bird communities and how we can measure their health and condition. With thousands of Australians contributing data through citizen science, and the rapid expansion of acoustic monitoring, we may not be long away from being able to measure and track the condition — and, let’s hope, the recovery — of bird communities right across Australia.

With new national laws to protect nature finally on the table, you will also hear from Erin Farley, BirdLife Australia Campaigns and Participation Team Leader, on what you can do to make sure we get the best outcome for birds.

Fiona Phillips MP, Member for Gilmore, will also be giving an opening address for the event.