Society for Conservation Biology

The University of Queensland-Brisbane Chapter is dedicated to promoting the conservation of biodiversity and associated ecological processes that improve and maintain the ecosystem health of Southeast Queensland, Australia. To achieve this, we focus on building the skills of our members to support and engage with conservation science.

Although we are relatively small (we just welcomed our 80^th member!), we have high aspirations for our budding chapter. In 2016, our restoration committee will continue the Brisbane River bank restoration project in partnership with the University of Queensland. Last year, with the help of over 150 volunteers nearly 10 000 native shrubs and grasses were planted to revegetate the understory along the riverbank. This February will mark the third phase of the planting project, which will see the addition of another 5000 plants, eventually leading to a one kilometre stretch of restored native vegetation.

The primary goal of this project is to restore small bird habitat on UQ campus. We are excited to see the benefits this will have for the area’s native biodiversity and have established a bird monitoring project to record changes in species composition and abundance. Already, over 100 surveys have been completed with over 70 different species found!

The year ahead will also see a slight re-formatting of our regular meetings. In addition to networking events and hands-on conservation opportunities, we will be hosting training workshops. This month, we have scheduled a talk on "Spreading the conservation science message in 140 characters — harnessing the powers, and avoiding the pitfalls of Twitter."

Finally and most importantly, July 2016 will see hundreds of conservationists from across the globe descend on Brisbane for the Society for Conservation Biology 4^th Oceania Congress. SCB UQ/Brisbane is looking forward to meeting colleagues from other chapters and participating in chapter workshops and social events.

For more information check out our chapter website: scbuq.org, our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/scbbris/) or follow us on Twitter (@SCBBrisUQ).