The 3 Biosphere Reserve Koala Collaboration program is an initiative of the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation, in an effort to foster strategic collaboration to enhance koala conservation across the SEQ biosphere reserve network.
The 3BRKC working group was initiated in June 2024 engaging stakeholders across conservation groups, academia, and all levels of government.
Workshop II (18 November 2024) was held at Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, supported by DETSI, hosted by the Sunshine Coast Council, facilitated by Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation. It was attended by representatives from 35 organisations active in koala conservation across the Sunshine Coast, Noosa and Great Sandy Biosphere Reserves.
Workshop II Summary
Participants provided updates on current activities and future plans; sharing knowledge, data and results of research and projects. The group discussed shared priorities relating to koala habitat restoration and connectivity and koala conservation and threat mitigation.
Underpinning discussions were topics relating to:
- Technology & innovation: capturing contemporary data through spatial mapping and analysis, tracking, signage, diagnostics, monitoring, reporting and citizen science.
- Threats: Road collisions and high-impact zones; opportunities for improved planning and hazard reduction.
- Health & distribution: insights on koala density and disease that enable targeted interventions for koala health and connectivity; monitoring genetic diversity; and the process to roll out the chlamydia vaccination across the 3 biosphere region.
- Engagement: with landholders and community through capacity building, citizen science and education campaigns.
- Advocacy: the importance of advocating for positive koala outcomes to be considered early on in government policy and planning processes.
- Custodians of the three Biosphere Reserves and Traditional Knowledge: increased and improved engagement with traditional custodians of the 3 Biosphere Reserves, the First Nations peoples, to improve sustainable conservation efforts through leadership, ecological knowledge, and custodianship.
Presentations
The main presentations at the Workshop were delivered by:
- Healthy Land and Water on their Koala Threat Management, and Restore and Connect programs.
- UniSC Detection Dogs for Conservation
- Dept of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation (DETSI) on their SEQ Koala Conservation Strategy 2020-2025 and recent investments.
Key outcomes
A key outcome of the Workshop will be to develop a Prospectus containing a list of current projects and what needs to be funded. A future workshop will be considered to pitch potential funders in a Koala Shark Tank style. Sub-groups may be established to coordinate/collaborate in more detail on specific areas and potentially apply for joint funding (for example sub-groups focused on revegetation and regeneration; another on data collection).
A visual story
