In the news: Ensuring equitable access to nature in cities
Catch our own Sarah Bekessy on the Inclusive Agenda podcast. Sarah discusses her recent work on ensuring equitable access to nature in the city for vulnerable communities. Click here
Finding space for nature in cities: the considerable potential of redundant car parking
Written by Tom de Aizpurua Major cities can play a vital role in creating biodiversity gains through Nature Based Solutions (NBS). Finding space in dense and heavily congested urban environments is difficult, but research conducted at ICON Science shows that remodelling redundant car spaces to make way for green space could solve many city issues, […]
Why we should shatter Melbourne’s concrete creeks
Written by Tom de Aizpurua Our connection to nature continues to change over the years, for better or worse. Only in the 1960s did engineers and town planners decided to tame some of Melbourne’s vital rivers and streams with concrete to reduce the flood risk throughout the city, with the idea to protect neighbouring communities […]
Enabling Biodiversity Inclusive Design
In the day and age of the biodiversity emergency, architects, landscape architects, urban designers and even engineers are looking for answers to the question “How do we design for biodiversity?”. The ‘Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework’ specifically calls for the rise of biodiversity inclusive urban areas (See Target 12, Convention on Biological Diversity 2022). Biodiversity Inclusive […]
Outreach: Why we should shatter Melbourne’s concrete creeks
Cities like Melbourne are increasingly looking to tear up their concrete drains and restore natural waterways. Why is this and how can it best be done to create more natural, healthy and biodiverse cities? Click here
From ‘day of the species’ to ‘protecting species every day’
In April, I attended an art exhibition that helps people visualize the biodiversity crisis in Australia. ‘Day of the Species’ is a community art project with contributions from 200+ artists. As a contributing artist, you get to learn about and draw Australian biodiversity under protection by the EPBC Act. As a viewer, you can see […]
PhD Opportunity
The role of communication and messaging for community buy-in to threatened species conservation. We have top-up funding for a PhD student to undertake research on the role of communication and messaging for enhancing community buy-in and support for threatened species conservation. Potential topics include Increasing support for non-charismatic species: How to get the unloved loved? […]
Melbourne Conversations: Nature in our Liveable City
Check out Dr. Sarah Bekessy’s talk at Melbourne Conversations on the benefits of urban biodiversity. Sarah’s talk runs approximately 10 minutes from minute 33:25 and all of the talks are worth a listen.
Men leaning out can make space for all of us to ‘care, mother and bake’ in our professional lives
by Sarah Bekessy I couldn’t agree more with E.J. Milner-Gulland –Nicola Denzey Lewis’s list of how to be a successful female academic (“don’t care, don’t mother, don’t bake”) – sounds like a list of how to eliminate all things fun and worthwhile in your professional life. Likewise the whole ‘lean in’ approach makes me a […]
