Biodiversity Symposium

FNCV Biodiversity Symposium

Triplet Falls, Otway Ranges.
Photographer: J. Hubregtse

In Australia, September is designated as Biodiversity Month by the Commonwealth Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. Each year since 2002, the FNCV marks the month with a symposium held to promote the importance of protecting, conserving and improving biodiversity. Each Symposium focuses on a specific theme, the subject of which has been drawn from a variety of local and international events and movements. In some cases the theme has been aligned with the UN International Year calendar; in others, activities and issues of significance to local biodiversity have formed the subject of discussion.

Crimson Rosella (Platycercus elegans).
Photographer: I. Kitchen

Many of the symposia are two-day events, with the first day devoted to presentations by invited speakers, and the second to a fieldtrip to relevant local sites. In most cases the papers presented at the symposium have been subsequently collected and published as a special issue of the FNCV journal The Victorian Naturalist. In the following list of Biodiversity Symposia themes, those that have been published are marked with an asterisk (*).