NEWS

Welcoming 5 new members

The IUCN Australian Committee is pleased to announce 5 new members, including 4 IUCN member organisations and 1 Associate Member.

Congratulations and welcome to the four Australian organisations who have recently been approved for IUCN membership:

Australian Land Conservation Alliance - Australia’s peak national body representing organisations that work to conserve, manage, and restore nature on private land.
Environmental Justice Australia - A public interest legal organisation for a radically better world
4Nature - A not-for-profit organisation seeking to ensure that the natural environments of Australia and the South Pacific survive and thrive
The Minderoo Foundation - An Australian philanthropy, working to forge a fair future by courageously challenging inequalities and campaigning for meaningful change.

Our four new IUCN member organisations are eligible for full participation, including voting rights, at the World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi in October.

And a warm welcome to our newest Associate Member:

Fungimap Inc - a not-for-profit registered charity, dedicated to recording and mapping fungi in Australia, spreading the word about the essential role of fungi in biodiversity, and advocating for fungal conservation and investment in mycology.

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What it means to be a member of IUCN

IUCN membership includes governments and civil society organisations, united under the common goal of protecting nature and conserving life on Earth.

Through their affiliation with IUCN, Member organisations convene and influence diverse stakeholders at the highest level globally, all in support of nature conservation. They are also part of a democratic process, voting on Resolutions and Recommendations to drive the global conservation agenda.

Furthermore, as an official United Nations Observer, IUCN ensures that nature conservation has an influential voice at the highest level of international governance.

IUCN’s expertise and extensive network also provides a solid foundation for a large and diverse portfolio of conservation projects around the world. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of local communities, these projects work to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems and improve people’s well-being. They also produce a wealth of data and information which further feeds into IUCN’s analytical capacity.

The value of working together as a Union cannot be understated, or reproduced. IUCN’s history is built on the results of Members putting knowledge, influence and execution to work for a more sustainable future.

Wrap-up: Species Survival Symposium

A bomb cyclone hit the east of Australia on July 1st, but not even a catastrophic weather event was able to stop dedicated protectors of nature from attending our Species Survival Symposium starting on July 2nd.

Despite the havoc, cancelled flights, and transport chaos, over 140 people from all sectors still made it to Taronga Zoo to address the challenges of achieving No New Extinctions and driving species recovery in Australia.

We are also grateful to the 70+ people who participated online and via the livestream.

Coming up next:

Video clips from the livestream will be uploaded to this youtube playlist:

Powerpoint slides from the presentations will be uploaded and shared on the event webpage: https://www.aciucn.org.au/species-survival-symposium

Final report: we are currently compiling all of the insights, recommendations and feedback from participants, and we will release a report of these findings soon.

In the meantime, thank you again to all of our sponsors, partners, presenters, facilitators, collaborators, and all of our attendees for joining us and helping us deliver this critically important and urgent gathering.

Erica McCreedy re-appointed to the ACIUCN Board

We are pleased to announce Erica McCreedy as the re-appointed NGO House Representative to the ACIUCN Board.

After the AGM in 2024, our two other nominees respectfully withdrew their nominations in support of Erica McCreedy continuing on the board. As the sole nominee, Erica was unanimously re-appointed to the board at our first board meeting in February 2025. We look forward to continuing to work with Erica on our board and to benefit from her valuable expertise in governance and Indigenous leadership nationally and globally.

About Erica McCreedy

Erica is the Chief Operations Officer for the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA), the only Indigenous People’s Organisation (IPO) member for IUCN in Oceania. Erica is a Māori woman from the Ngāti Raukawa and Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti tribes from Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Erica's background includes over fifteen years working in the Indigenous land and sea management sector across Australia and with Indigenous initiatives and networks globally.

Erica is the key lead for Oceania in developing and implementing the Podong Indigenous Peoples Initiative, which directly addresses the biodiversity and climate challenges outlined in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement.

Erica is the key lead for NAILSMA’s Indigenous Peoples Organisation (IPO) work; and as a member of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB), was actively involved in the Resource Mobilisation working group negotiations at COP16.

She has high levels of experience and understanding of board, governance, and financial oversight processes, including financial accountability, sustainability, and effectiveness and is a professional facilitator.