SCB Oceania hosted the Society for Conservation Biology’s 32nd International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2025) from 15–19 June in Brisbane, Australia. With 1,919 delegates, ICCB 2025 was the second most attended congress in its history, and it featured more presentations than any ICCB to date. Truly global in scope, ICCB convened conservationists from more than 90 countries who collectively spoke over 60 languages.
More than half of the delegates at ICCB were international visitors, with professionals comprising 68 percent and students 32 percent of total attendance. This mix reflects ICCB’s strong focus on fostering collaboration, knowledge exchange and mentoring across career stages.
Queensland Chief Scientist Kerrie Wilson set the tone for ICCB 2025 at the Opening Plenary by encouraging delegates to confront the biodiversity crisis with optimism that is sustained by the collective wisdom of the global conservation community that gathered in Brisbane.
“Hope is not about denying the crises we face,” Wilson said. “It is about recognizing the pathways to solutions and taking tangible steps toward them.”
ICCB 2025 Scientific Program
With a record number of presentations, the ICCB scientific program was carefully designed to balance a packed scientific schedule with meaningful opportunities for networking and collaboration.
To achieve this, all speed talks were scheduled on Day 1, creating a fast-paced energy from the start and providing participants a broad and rapid-fire overview of the latest research in conservation science and practice. This also provided delegates and speed presenters more time to connect throughout the week for deeper discussions and collaborations around the research presented.
Contributed oral sessions and symposia were scheduled for days two through four of the congress, with several sessions aligned with the work of SCB’s Global Programs and Working Groups on topics including impact evaluation, policy, social science, marine conservation, communications, and participatory science. Approximately 40% of the 100 symposia featured a new format type: the Flexible Symposium. This format was designed to encourage creative, diverse, and culturally relevant approaches to knowledge sharing at ICCB, giving participants, presenters, and organizers new ways to engage.
As always, the ICCB poster sessions created dynamic and vibrant hub of discovery and knowledge exchange. For three consecutive nights, delegates engaged with hundreds of scientific poster presentations. The direct engagement opportunities in the poster hall among presenters and fellow attendees are a cornerstone of what makes ICCB such a special gathering for the global conservation community.
ICCB also hosted 33 pre-and post-congress training courses, workshops, and forums; generously supported by the University of Queensland, which allowed us to offer these sessions free of charge to delegates.
Social & Networking Highlights
In addition to scientific sessions, ICCB 2025 featured a fun and diverse social program, with nearly every event sold out. Highlights included: Student Day (200 attendees), Student & Early Career Researcher Mixer (400 attendees), nature journaling workshops, bird walks, Nature Documentary Night, Science Comedy Night (500+ attendees) and numerous side mixers and informal gatherings.
ICCB 2025 is not possible without the 40+ sponsors and exhibitors who supported the congress and created a lively exhibit hall for delegates to engage directly with exhibitors showcasing the latest products and products, projects, innovations, and art from across the conservation world. Throughout the week, the exhibit hall offered delegates a space to build relationships and see conservation in action.
We are grateful to all sponsors, delegates, and dozens of volunteers who made ICCB 2025 an unforgettable congress!
Check out the photos from ICCB 2025 here, and the videos here.