Last month, the 32nd International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2025) took place in Brisbane/Meanjin, Australia. ICON Science was well–represented at the meeting with seven current lab members and three recent alumni in attendance.
The conference kicked off with a series of pre-congress sessions held over the weekend of Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 June. Dr Jasmine Pearson and Dr Ascelin Gordon set the tone with their thought–provoking workshop “A holistic approach for understanding the diverse influences of conservation”. The session was well attended with plenty of engaged discussion on who and what is influenced by conservation, and how.
The first day of the main conference program saw four ICON Science members presenting their research in a series of speed talks. Dr Jasmine Pearson chaired a session on Social-ecological Transformations, where she presented on “Towards a more holistic understanding of conservation benefits,” using private protected areas in Australia as a case study. Dr Jacinta Humphrey also chaired a diverse session on Sustainable Land and Water Use, where she shared insights from her PhD research on “How to design residential landscapes to support native bird communities“. Next, Stephanie Wong unpacked her systematic review on “The relationship between impact and spillover for terrestrial protected areas“ in the Protected and Conservation Areas session. To round out the day, Fiona Hoegh-Guldberg spoke in the Conservation Law and Policy session about the need to integrate Biodiversity Sensitive Urban Design and Water Sensitive Urban Design in her presentation “Onsets not offsets for real biodiversity gains”.
Day two of the main program featured ICON Science Lab Head, Prof. Sarah Bekessy. Sarah was invited to contribute to a session on The Future of Designing with Urban Wildlife, which focused on opportunities to embed conservation in the design of the built environment. Prof. Bekessy spoke about “Designing cities for everyday nature” to facilitate positive human-nature interactions in the places where people live, work and play. ICON Science alumni Dr Dale Wright (now working for BirdLife Australia) also spoke in the Conservation Social Science in Practice session on his PhD research into “Coffee farmers’ participation in environmental sustainability initiatives”.
The final day of the International Congress for Conservation Biology featured two ICON affiliates – Dr Lily van Eeden and Dr Georgia Garrard. Dr Lily van Eeden spoke on the power of public influence in her talk, “Public pathways to influencing pro-nature decision-making in government” in the Science-based Decision-making session. Dr Georgia Garrard, now based at Zoos Victoria, spoke in the Animal Welfare in Conservation symposium about “Ethical frameworks [for] guiding decision-making for wildlife in zoo-based conservation organisations”.
In the closing session of the Congress, it was announced that ICON Science alumni, Dr Matthew Selinske, had been elected as the next President-elect of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB). Dr Selinske will step into the position of SCB President in June 2027. Congratulations to Matthew on this prestigious role!
Overall, ICCB 2025 was an inspiring week full of diverse ideas, innovative research, and new and old connections in the conservation science community. The next International Congress for Conservation Biology will be held in Mexico in mid-2027.
