Fenner Conference on the Environment 2021: Exceptional times, exceptional plants

This Australian Academy of Science Fenner Conference on the Environment will provide an opportunity for scientists working on conservation of Australia’s diverse flora, including some of our most threatened species, to evaluate methods for conserving plant germplasm—seeds, plants and other plant tissues—so they are available for species recovery and protected from extinction.

The conference is timely for securing surviving germplasm, particularly in rainforest habitats impacted by bushfires in 2019–20; and plant communities devastated by diseases such as Phytophthora dieback and myrtle rust. Many of these species cannot be conserved using conventional seed banking techniques. Significant advances to identify and conserve these ‘exceptional plants’ ex situ have been made in the last decade. Knowledge-sharing will support conservation in this critical window of opportunity before extinction may occur.

This workshop is funded by a Fenner Conference on the Environment grant from the Australian Academy of Science.

Conference award background

With the generous support of the late Professor Frank Fenner FAA FRS and the late Mrs Bobbie Fenner, the Academy has established a series of environmental conferences on the environment and conservation issues in Australia and its environs. The purpose of these conferences is to bring together those with relevant scientific, administrative and policy expertise to consider current environmental and conservation problems in Australia, thereby contributing to the formation of policies that can alleviate some of these problems.

More information on the Fenner Conference Environment Award scheme