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Empowering Landholders and Communities: Reflections from the 2025 ALCA Conference

by | Oct 15, 2025 | Events and talks, Partnerships and collaborations

In October, BioDiversity Legacy joined landholders, Traditional Owners, scientists, and conservation organisations from around the country at the 2025 Australian Land Conservation Alliance Conference, held in Gimuy (Cairns).

The conference theme - Scaling Up: Local Action for Global Solutions - echoed what drives our work at BioDiversity Legacy every day: empowering and facilitating landholders and communities to protect the land they love - from early steps in land stewardship to formal and lasting protection.

Shared purpose and momentum

The Australian Land Conservation Alliance (ALCA) is the national peak body for organisations working in private land conservation, bringing together people who are actively restoring and safeguarding nature on privately managed land. This year’s event created a powerful space for sharing knowledge, building partnerships and exploring innovative models for long-term protection.

BioDiversity Legacy was proud to be announced as one of ALCA’s newest member organisations, alongside the National Landcare Network - a milestone that reflects our growing role in this national movement (see the full list of ALCA members here).

Contributing to the conversation

BioDiversity Legacy staff were delighted to play an active role in the Land Conservation Forum for Landholders on Tuesday, 7 October, with our Head of Conservation Engagement & Partnerships, Dixie Fitzclarence, co-presenting a session with Andrew and Angus Cleary from Nuggan Sanctuary, who shared their family’s inspiring conservation journey and their work to secure lasting protection for their land.

BioDiversity Legacy's Far North Queensland Biolink Coordinator, Keith Smith (who is also involved in Queensland’s Private Protected Area Program), participated in the Ask an Expert session, offering insights into land management and conservation practices.

"The week was filled with insight and connection. MC Sean Dooley kept spirits high and Peter Garrett’s closing remarks left the room energised for the road ahead. We left Cairns inspired and looking forward to reconnecting with everyone in Lutruwita/Tasmania next October for ALCA26 and in Naarm/Melbourne for the 2027 International Land Conservation Network Global Congress,” said Dixie.

Biolink Coordinator recognised as a trusted voice for nature

by | Jul 22, 2025 | Land connection, Media releases, Stewardship

Congratulations to BioDiversity Legacy South Gippsland Biolink Coordinator, Stuart Inchley, who has been selected to join an august list of conservation experts in the new Nature Media Centre, a joint project of the BioDiversity Council, Pew Charitable Trusts and the Australian Land Conservation Alliance.

The Nature Media Centre was recently established as a 'non-partisan resource’ to give journalists access to conservation experts working in areas as diverse as regenerative farming, art and design, land management, ecology, urban planning, academia, citizen science, Indigenous knowledge and even ‘astrotourism’.

Many of these individuals do not have high media profiles yet are highly influential in their local communities and are doing amazing things on the ground. As such, they are well placed to provide insights into the challenges and complexities of environmental protection and management.

In his capacity as Biolink Coordinator, Stuart is connecting landholders – many of whom are working in isolation – across South Gippsland, strengthening communities willing to restore and protect habitat on private land.

With partner Victoria, Stuart also looks after a 300-acre covenant-protected property, Tarwin River Forest, in South Gippsland. The property, which is home to many rare and threatened species such as the Gang-gang Cockatoo, Pilotbird and Strzelecki Burrowing Crayfish, has a significant population of Critically Endangered Slender Tree-ferns in some magnificent cool temperate rainforest gullies.

Stuart and Victoria have first-hand experience of the personal and financial challenges of stewarding private property for conservation, including threats from forestry, climate change and feral animals.

They regularly bring the community together for events on the property, where they share their experiences, their love of these landscapes, community-led solutions and active hope.

Stuart joins Diana Droog, secretary of Land Covenantors Victoria, in the Nature Media Centre as a trusted voice for private land conservation.

We look forward to what Stuart, Diana and others have to say in the coming months as they shine a light on Australia’s unfolding environmental crisis and help newsmakers tell compelling stories that educate and inspire action.

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