Restoration Law and Finance Conference: Legal and Financial Obstacles to Rehabilitation, Rehydration and Regeneration of Land and Water and Options for Reform

In-person event

The Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law at Sydney Law School invites you to Australia’s inaugural ‘Restoration Law and Finance Conference’ on Thursday and Friday, 7 & 8 December 2023.

The Australian Federal Government has committed to ‘preventing, halting and reversing the loss of nature’ by signing up to The United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, publishing the Nature Positive Plan (2022) and introducing the Nature Market Repair Bill (2023). As stated in the recently released Independent Review of the NSW Biodiversity Act 2016, chaired by Ken Henry, it is time to move ‘beyond biodiversity conservation to a “nature positive” framing that emphasises the need to repair past damage and to take urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, putting nature on a path to recovery, so that thriving ecosystems can support future generations’.

To achieve this, legal and financial barriers to restoration need to be addressed urgently.

Through a series of keynotes, presentations and panel discussions, the conference will bring together a diverse range of speakers, including Indigenous experts, lawyers, investors, restoration practitioners and government officials to discuss the legal and financial barriers to restoring nature across a range of land tenures, and workable solutions to address these issues. Federal initiatives for nature positive repair are unlikely to succeed unless these challenges are confronted head on.

Speakers include: Dr Justine Bell-James (Associate Professor, University of Queensland Law School); Dr Gerry Bates (University of Sydney); Dr Louise Camenzuli (Partner, Corrs Chambers Westgarth); Dr Emma Carmody (Restore Blue); Rohan Clarke (Regen Farmers Mutual); Raeleen Draper (Senior Natural Environment Project Officer (Blue Heart), Sunshine Coast Council); Veda FitzSimons (Associate Director, Pollination); Carolyn Hall (CEO and Managing Director, The Mulloon Institute); Dr Ken Henry (Economist, Non-Executive Director of the Australian Securities Exchange, Cape York Partnership and Accounting for Nature Ltd.); Fiachra Kearney (Forever Wild); Stella Kondylas (The Nature Conservancy); Jock Mackenzie (EarthWatch); Grantley Smith (Restore Blue); Heidi Mippy (Noongar and This-Man-Warriyangka woman, Curtin University); Associate Professor Brad Moggridge (University of Canberra); Stephen Murphy (Conservation Partners); Claire Smith (Partner, Clayton Utz); Professor Ben Richardson (University of Tasmania Law School); James Trezise (Biodiversity Conservation Council); Laura Waterford (Director, Pollination); Cassandra Stevens (Director, Kullilli Bulloo River Aboriginal Corporation)

View the program and read speaker bios here (Updated 7 December 2023)

Thursday 7 – Friday 8 December 2023

Venue: Law Foyer, Level 2, New Law Building (F10), University of Sydney, Camperdown campus

This event is hosted by the Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law (ACCEL) at Sydney Law School and is proudly supported by Mills Oakley.