Australian Conservation Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n non-profit, community-based environmental organisation focused on advocacy, policy research and community outreach.

History

(This is an edited and updated version of 'ACF: Protecting the Environment for 30 Years', originally published in Habitat in 1996.)

The 60s

ACF's founders were drawn from Australia's scientific, public service, business and political decision makers. A 1963 memo from the Duke of Edinburgh
Duke of Edinburgh
The Duke of Edinburgh is a British royal title, named after the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, which has been conferred upon members of the British royal family only four times times since its creation in 1726...

 inspired Francis Ratcliffe
Francis Ratcliffe
Francis Noble Ratcliffe OBE was an Australian zoologist and conservationist.Ratcliffe was born a British citizen in Calcutta, India. He was educated at Berkhamsted School and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and at Princeton University in the USA...

 to consult with his CSIRO colleagues and work with conservationists and community leaders to establish a national conservation body.

Francis Ratcliffe saw conservation as one of the three most important issues facing humanity, along with the avoidance of an atomic war and achieving racial harmony. In August 1964, at a conference in Canberra, the organisation that was to become the Australian Conservation Foundation was born. Its first president was Sir Garfield Barwick then Chief Justice of the High Court
High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is the supreme court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, has the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the States, and...

. ACF came into being as a legal entity when its certificate of incorporation was issued in August 1966.

Early meetings of the ACF Council identified the Mallee
Mallee Woodlands and Shrublands
Mallee Woodlands and Shrublands is a Major Vegetation Group which occurs in semi-arid areas of southern Australia. The vegetation is dominated by mallee eucalypts which are rarely over 6 metres high...

, rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...

s, the Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...

 and central Australia
Central Australia
Central Australia/Alice Springs Region is one of the five regions in the Northern Territory. The term Central Australia is used to describe an area centred on Alice Springs in Australia. It is sometimes referred to as Centralia; likewise the people of the area are sometimes called Centralians...

 as the areas most needing coordinated national attention and action. However, due to limited resources and the urgency of the threats to the Great Barrier Reef re-focussed ACF on protecting the Reef from mining and oil drilling.

During the 1960s, ACF developed most of the campaign methods it used for the following twenty-five years. These included research, policy development, education and lobbying. ACF gave support to other conservation organisations and established local branches.

Francis Ratcliffe had a vision of building a large body of members to support ACF financially and assist with community education. As the sixties drew to a close the wave of public support for conservation escalated.

The 70s

The seventies were the decade that ACF consolidated its operations, extended its vision and committed to long-term plans for the achievement of conservation goals.

In 1970 the campaign to protect large areas of the Mallee in Victoria was resolved in favour of conservation. In 1972 the remote and beautiful Lake Pedder
Lake Pedder
Lake Pedder was once a natural lake, located in the southwest of Tasmania, Australia but the name is now used in an official sense to refer to the much larger artificial impoundment and diversion lake formed when the original lake was expanded by damming in 1972 by the Hydro Electric Commission of...

 in Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

 was obliterated by a hydroelectric scheme. A group of ACF members, angered by the organisation's failure to speak without fear or favour in opposition to the flooding of Lake Pedder, worked to bring about internal change. ACF's approach to conservation campaigning became more strategic, active and independent and throughout the seventies public awareness of conservation issues increased.

In 1973, Gough Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...

, then Prime Minister of Australia, launched the first issue of Habitat, now ACF's iconic magazine. Prince Phillip, then president of ACF, wrote that 'Habitat will provide essential news on conservation matters to the public at large.'

ACF pressed the federal government to lead a campaign for a worldwide ban to whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

 and for an end to whaling in Australian waters. Thirty thousand supporters responded to a television advertising campaign to 'Save the Whales'. Nine years of vigorous public campaigning later, a moratorium was declared on commercial whaling in 1981.

In 1974 Australia signed the World Heritage Convention and ACF proposed World Heritage nominations for areas of great natural and cultural values, beginning with the Great Barrier Reef and Fraser Island.

Throughout the seventies, ACF campaigned against uranium mining
Uranium mining
Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. The worldwide production of uranium in 2009 amounted to 50,572 tonnes, of which 27% was mined in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 63% of world uranium...

. ACF was a principal party at the Fox Inquiry into mining at Ranger in Kakadu and pressed for the creation of a major national park to protect both the natural and cultural values of the area.

Inspired by its President, Dr Nugget Coombs, economist, environmentalist and Indigenous rights
Indigenous rights
Indigenous rights are those rights that exist in recognition of the specific condition of the indigenous peoples. This includes not only the most basic human rights of physical survival and integrity, but also the preservation of their land, language, religion and other elements of cultural...

 activist, ACF moved to support Aboriginal land rights and in 1978 pledged to work collaboratively with the Northern and Central Land Councils.

ACF became increasingly involved in urban issues. ACF Councillor and unionist Jack Mundey
Jack Mundey
Jack Mundey is a distinguished Australian union and environmental activist. He came to prominence during the 1970s for leading the New South Wales Builders' Labourers Federation in the famous Green Bans, whereby the BLF led a successful campaign to protect the built and natural environment of...

 was the force behind 'green bans' that saw unions withdraw their labour from demolition sites to protect historic urban precincts like The Rocks
The Rocks, New South Wales
The Rocks is an urban locality, tourist precinct and historic area of Sydney's city centre, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour, immediately north-west of the Sydney central business district...

 in Sydney. Pollution, climate change and population became topics of debate on the pages of Habitat.

The 80s

The explosive environmental issue of the early 1980s was the campaign to protect the Franklin River
Franklin River
The Franklin River lies in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park at the mid northern area of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Its source is situated at the western edge of the Central Highlands and it continues west towards the West Coast of Tasmania...

, one of the last wild rivers in Australia. ACF mobilised supporters and resources behind the campaign that went all the way to the High Court to prevent the damming of the river. A pervasive theme in the 1980s was the fight for Australia's native forests. In 1987, ACF and other environment groups pushed forests into the spotlight. Daintree
Daintree National Park
Daintree is a national park in Far North Queensland, Australia, northwest of Brisbane and northwest of Cairns. It was founded in 1981 and is part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland. In 1988 it was granted listing as a World Heritage List...

's tropical rainforests finally gained World Heritage listing in 1988, despite the vehement opposition of the then Queensland Government. Kakadu's cultural and natural qualities were again under threat from uranium mining during the eighties.

ACF played a lead role in securing Stages 1 and 2 of the Kakadu National Park
Kakadu National Park
Kakadu National Park is in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km southeast of Darwin.Kakadu National Park is located within the Alligator Rivers Region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It covers an area of , extending nearly 200 kilometres from north to south and over 100 kilometres...

 and establishing an inquiry into the proposed Coronation Hill mine. The late eighties saw ACF make a major effort to redress Australia's massive land degradation problems. In 1989 a historic alliance between ACF and the National Farmers Federation called for the establishment of a national Landcare program. Landcare provided a vision for the transformation to ecological sustainability that was embraced by all major political parties. The nineties were to be declared 'The Decade of Landcare'.

One of the most important environment decisions in global terms was the Australian government's rejection of mining in Antarctica in 1989. A policy of protection for Antarctica had been developed by ACF in the mid-seventies and it was ACF's persistence with its vision and the success of its public awareness campaign that eventually convinced the government to act. In 1989 Peter Garrett
Peter Garrett
Peter Robert Garrett, AM, MP , is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and politician.Garrett was lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil from 1973 until its disbanding in 2002...

, rock star and environmental activist, became President of ACF. Peter brought to the organisation his passion and commitment to a wide range of issues including anti-uranium, indigenous rights and Northern Australia
Northern Australia
The term northern Australia is generally known to include two State and Territories, being Queensland and the Northern Territory . The part of Western Australia north of latitude 26° south—a definition widely used in law and State government policy—is also usually included...

.

Throughout the 80s, ACF developed into an organisation that was more professional, more strategic in its alliances and more politically sophisticated. The decade closed with environmental issues high on the political agenda and ACF the leading national advocate for the environment.

The 90s

In the nineties ACF redefined its vision and sought to inspire a society that was environmentally aware and responsible. ACF positioned itself in the mainstream and by the end of the nineties mainstream society had changed the way it viewed the environment. At the close of the millennium, progressive business came to understand environmental responsibility as a competitive advantage and more than sixty percent of Australians listed the environment as one of their major concerns.

The nineties began on a high note. The environment was the focus of the federal election and ACF was swamped by the media with requests for information to produce environment-related TV programs, newspaper feature articles and radio documentaries. On World Environment Day 1990, ACF and Telecom Australia
Telecom Australia
Telecom Australia was the trading name of the:* Australian Telecommunications Commission * Australian Telecommunications Corporation * Australian and Overseas Telecommunications Corporation...

 held a nationwide video conference for young people throughout the country to discuss ways to reduce ozone-depleting
Ozone depletion
Ozone depletion describes two distinct but related phenomena observed since the late 1970s: a steady decline of about 4% per decade in the total volume of ozone in Earth's stratosphere , and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone over Earth's polar regions. The latter phenomenon...

 substances. Then in 1993 the recession hit and media attention turned away from the environment. Despite financial constraints, ACF continued to extend its influence through initiatives such as the Green Jobs Unit, which promoted employment creating environmental solutions; the alliance with the National Farmers Federation, which was renewed in 1996 and again in 2000; and the establishment of the GeneEthics Network to focus on the impact of genetic engineering
Genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...

.

ACF broadened its engagement with Indigenous peoples, both in Australia and in the Asia-Pacific region. The fight to stop mining at Coronation Hill succeeded in 1991 and from 1992 ACF was key in highlighting the environmental and social impacts of the Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

.

The nineties were the decade in which greenhouse pollution and climate change became critical issues. ACF helped to establish the Sustainable Energy Industries Council of Australia and the Federal government agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by the year 2005. When Canberra backtracked on this commitment in the mid-nineties, ACF spoke out in international forums including the 1995 Berlin Climate Change Conference.

In 1995 ACF launched its first website with a view to facilitating more frequent and effective communication with its diverse range of supporters.

ACF worked to bring the degraded state of the Murray-Darling Basin
Murray-Darling Basin
The Murray-Darling basin is a large geographical area in the interior of southeastern Australia, whose name is derived from its two major rivers, the Murray River and the Darling River. It drains one-seventh of the Australian land mass, and is currently by far the most significant agricultural...

 to public attention. In 1996 ACF introduced the concept of environmental flows into the political arena and launched a major campaign to reverse the decline of Australia's rivers.

ACF and other environment groups worked with the Mirrar people to halt the Jabiluka
Jabiluka
Jabiluka is a uranium deposit and mine development in the Northern Territory of Australia that was to have been built on land belonging to the Mirarr Aboriginal people...

 uranium mine at Kakadu. The 1998 blockade gained significant media attention and placed Jabiluka on the national and international agenda.

21st century

In 2000 ACF's Natural Advantage: A Blueprint for a Sustainable Australia was launched by Sir William Deane
William Deane
Sir William Patrick Deane, AC, KBE, QC , Australian judge and the 22nd Governor-General of Australia.-Early life:William Deane was born in Melbourne, Victoria. He was educated at Catholic schools including St. Joseph's College, Hunters Hill and at the University of Sydney, where he graduated in...

, then Governor General of Australia. The blueprint outlined ACF's vision for a sustainable Australia and set out inspirational and long-term solutions to environmental problems. Some of the key initiatives of the blueprint were a national project of sustainability reform; a long-term, strategic commitment to land and water repair; greenhouse gas reductions and energy efficiency; environmental tax reform; reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians; and building social capital to ensure all Australians benefit from their great natural advantages. In the early years of the new millennium ACF 'walked the talk' and moved its head office to the 60L Green Building in Carlton. ACF's supporter base grew and many more Australians expressed a desire to make a difference for the environment. Polls regularly placed the environment among Australians' top concerns. The blueprint continues to drive innovative campaigns to protect, restore and sustain the environment. ACF has entered into a range of partnerships with Indigenous Australians, particularly in Northern Australia, with the scientific and business sector and with rural communities. ACF is developing a national community outreach program to inspire individual action on some of the most pressing environmental challenges Australians face. ACF's achievements for the decade to date include the restoration of flows to the Snowy River
Snowy River
The Snowy River is a major river in south-eastern Australia. It originates on the slopes of Mount Kosciuszko, Australia's highest mainland peak, draining the eastern slopes of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales, before flowing through the Snowy River National Park in Victoria and emptying into...

, the banning of radioactive waste
Radioactive waste
Radioactive wastes are wastes that contain radioactive material. Radioactive wastes are usually by-products of nuclear power generation and other applications of nuclear fission or nuclear technology, such as research and medicine...

 dumps in SA, a halt to broadscale land clearing in Queensland, the promised rehabilitation of the Jabiluka mine site in Kakadu and the declaration of new Marine Parks in Victoria. ACF has made salinity, water and energy urgent national issues and pushed hard for national action on climate change, the Murray and Tasmania's magnificent forests.

Campaigns & programs

The Australian Conservation Foundation covers a wide range of environmental and sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...

 issues, including: protected area
Protected area
Protected areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognised natural, ecological and/or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the enabling laws of each country or the regulations of the international...

s, sustainable agriculture
Sustainable agriculture
Sustainable agriculture is the practice of farming using principles of ecology, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment...

 and land management
Land management
Land management is the process of managing the use and development of land resources. Land resources are used for a variety of purposes which may include organic agriculture, reforestation, water resource management and eco-tourism projects.-See also:*Sustainable land management*Acreage...

, climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

 and energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...

, nuclear issues, sustainable consumption, forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

s, ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...

s, sustainable cities
Sustainable city
A sustainable city, or eco-city is a city designed with consideration of environmental impact, inhabited by people dedicated to minimization of required inputs of energy, water and food, and waste output of heat, air pollution - CO2, methane, and water pollution...

, corporate environmental responsibility, environmental law reform, healthy rivers and water management
Water management
Water management is the activity of planning, developing, distributing and managing the optimum use of water resources. In an ideal world. water management planning has regard to all the competing demands for water and seeks to allocate water on an equitable basis to satisfy all uses and demands...

, and ecologically sustainable development
Ecologically sustainable development
Ecologically sustainable development is the environmental component of sustainable development. It can be achieved partially through the use of the precautionary principle, namely that if there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not...

 in northern Australia, East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...

 and Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

.

Campaigns and programs are selected predominantly for their capacity to contribute to reforms of national significance. This means that ACF tends not to become directly involved in local environmental issues, except where action on these contributes to achieving broader goals, such as highlighting examples of national problems or generating examples of solutions with larger potential. The organisation is acutely aware of its limited resources and strives to apply these strategically. This said, ACF is often called upon to comment on local issues and will often lend local environmental groups a helping hand. More often than not, ACF will work closely with other environmental groups - large or small - on the understanding that more can be achieved through co-operation.

The Peter Rawlinson Award
Peter Rawlinson Award
The Peter Rawlinson Award is an annual Australian environment award by the Australian Conservation Foundation consisting of $3000 and a plaque made to individuals who have made an outstanding voluntary contribution to the Australian environment. It commemorates Dr Peter Rawlinson’s contribution as...

 has been established by the ACF consisting of $3,000 and a plaque made to individuals who have made an outstanding voluntary contribution to the Australian environment. The award is announced on 5 June, World Environment Day each year. It commemorates Dr Peter Rawlinson’s contribution as an environmental campaigner and researcher. Rawlinson was an ACF Treasurer and Vice President and a biologist and conservationist who died while doing field work in Indonesia in 1991.

In August 2007, ACF launched a new campaign - Who On Earth Cares - with Cate Blanchett
Cate Blanchett
Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett is an Australian actress. She came to international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 biopic film Elizabeth, for which she won British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Golden Globe Awards, and earned her first Academy Award...

 as its ambassador, aiming to provide online community spaces for people to show they care about climate change in Australia, and who want to see Australia reduce its greenhouse pollution.

Funding

About 90% of ACF's funding is received from its members and supporters, with the small remainder derived from government grants and from selected companies.

Organisation

The Australian Conservation Foundation is governed by a thirty-five member Council of Representatives elected every three years by the organisation's membership. The Council meets regularly to determine organisational policy and priorities. ACF's democratic structure helps to ensure that its sixty-odd staff keep in touch with Australia's diverse grassroots environmental movement, while maintaining a high degree of professionalism and a strategic approach to sustainability issues of national significance. Council elects an Executive which meets more frequently to debate and decide on organisational matters in more detail. Council also appoints a voluntary President who represents ACF at a high level and who chairs Council meetings. In 2005 Professor Ian Lowe
Ian Lowe
Ian Lowe is President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Professor of Science, Technology and Society and former Head of the School of Science at Griffith University, as well as an adjunct professor at Sunshine Coast University and Flinders University. In 1996 he was chair-person of the...

, distinguished Australian scientist and Emeritus Professor of Science, Technology and Society at Griffith University, was appointed President, replacing Peter Garrett
Peter Garrett
Peter Robert Garrett, AM, MP , is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and politician.Garrett was lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil from 1973 until its disbanding in 2002...

. Don Henry
Don Henry
Donald Hugh Henry is the Executive Director of the Australian Conservation Foundation . Henry has led the ACF since 1998, helping it to become a strong advocate for the environment by promoting solutions through research, consultation, education and partnerships. In 2008, Henry won the Equity...

 has been the Executive Director of the Australian Conservation Foundation since 1998.

The governing body of the Foundation is the Board, which consists of the President, two Vice-Presidents, four Councillors and up to four co-opted members. Co-opted Board members are chosen on the basis of their skills and experience, thus ensuring an appropriate mix of skills and experience within the Board.

Newsletter

  • 1967-1978 News letter (Australian Conservation Foundation. ISSN 0084-7283
  • 1979-1980 (?) Tjurkulpa : Australian Conservation Foundation newsletter. ISSN 0084-7283
  • 1981-1987 Australian Conservation Foundation newsletter. ISSN 0726-4151
  • 1988-1995 Conservation news : newsletter of the Australian Conservation Foundation. ISSN 1031-2323

Other periodicals

  • 1999-2001 Revive (Australian Conservation Foundation) quarterly
  • 1973-pres. Habitat quarterly

See also

  • Anti-nuclear movement in Australia
    Anti-nuclear movement in Australia
    Nuclear testing, uranium mining and export, and nuclear energy have often been the subject of public debate in Australia, and the anti-nuclear movement in Australia has a long history...

  • Environmental Defender's Office NSW
    Environmental Defender's Office NSW
    The Environmental Defender's Office is one of nine EDO offices located across Australia, collectively known as the Australian Network of EDOs ....

  • Fossil fuel phase out
  • Renewable energy in Australia
    Renewable energy in Australia
    Renewable energy in Australia represents 5.2% of total energy consumption, but only 1.7% of total production, the difference being the result of significant non-renewable energy exports. In the five years to 2009 renewable energy consumption grew by 3.5%, faster than other energy sources. Of all...

  • Tasmanian Wilderness Society
  • Woodchipping
    Woodchipping
    Woodchipping is the act and industry of chipping wood for pulp, processed wood products, and mulch.-Papermaking:Timber is converted to woodchips and sold, primarily, for pulp production used in paper manufacture...

  • Geoff Mosley
    Geoff Mosley
    John Geoffrey "Geoff" Mosley was Executive Director of the Australian Conservation Foundation from 1973 to 1986 and has had a lifelong interest in preserving wilderness. His contributions were acknowledged in 2005 when he was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday Honours...


Further reading

  • Lines, William J. (2006) Patriots : defending Australia's natural heritage St. Lucia, Qld. : University of Queensland Press, 2006. ISBN 0-70223-554-7
  • Broadbent, Beverley (1999) Inside the Greening : 25 years of the Australian Conservation Foundation Insite Press, Elwood, Victoria, 1999. ISBN 0-64637-411-7

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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