Zoos Victoria will be a key partner in the delivery of the 2021 UN & Australia Sustainable Partnerships Forum.
Zoos Victoria will lead a session to discuss the work being done globally to ensure the effectiveness of the UN Summit on Biodiversity to be held in May. The Summit will seek to adopt a global biodiversity framework which includes ambitious global, national targets that can be implemented at a global, national and community scale by 2050.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last year that by “living in harmony with nature, we can avert the worst impacts of climate change and recharge biodiversity for the benefit of people and the planet”.
Zoos Victoria’s Director of Wildlife Conservation and Science, Dr Sally Sherwen, will lead this conversation. Dr Sherwen leads a dynamic team of scientists and specialists that develop and deliver strategic programs in conservation, animal welfare, education, and environmental sustainability.
“From the devastating bushfires that swept the country followed by the global pandemic, the events of 2020 highlighted how critical it is for us to reexamine our relationship with nature,” Dr Sherwen said. “There is a way forward for us if we better value our interconnectedness on this planet.”
Dr Sherwen will be joined in this session by Rachel Lowry, Chief Conservation Officer, WWF Australia and Trent Clews-De Castella, Co-Founder, Phoria.
Rachel leads a team at WWF Australia focused on delivering transformational conservation results across Healthy Land and Seascapes, Threatened Species, Climate and Food Security.
PHORIA uses the storytelling power of Augmented and Virtual Reality to raise awareness for social impact causes aligned with the SDGs. In 2019, REWILD Our Planet used social Augmented Reality experiences to encourage people to restore balance to the natural world. Developed in partnership with Netflix, WWF, Google, and the ArtScience Museum, this installation highlighted how extensively human activity has damaged wildlife and wild places.