The Conference

From 26 to 28 June 2007, Tamar NRM in association with the Centre for Environment, University of Tasmania held a conference at the UTAS campus in Launceston. This conference was the fulfilment of a long held goal by Tamar NRM to further community biodiversity education by such an event.

The theme of the conference recognised that productivity and profitability had to be present for biodiversity conservation to be feasible for landholders.

In addition, the conference was built around the idea of collaborative research between landholders and researchers – hence the subtitle ‘case studies from the real world’.

More than 55 presentations including keynote papers and case studies were made over the three days to approximately 265 people. Delegates came from overseas, every state of Australia, every level of government and major primary industries.

The Tamar Principles – Outcomes of the Conference

The collective wisdom of the delegates was bought together on the last morning of the conference.

The result was seven principles that answered the question "For individual producers to build businesses that allow biodiversity to thrive, we must ……".

A summary of the conference, entitled The Tamar Principles has subsequently been produced.

Using the presenters' own words, each of the seven principles is illustrated by one of the keynote speakers and several of the case studies. The combined insight of the delegates that was gathered during the concluding session is also reflected in the 'What can I do?' sections for each of the Principles.

Tamar NRM now encourages and challenges everyone to apply The Tamar Principles in pursuit of the integration of biodiversity conservation and production.

Click here to read The Tamar Principles.