Oceania Chapter
Approval for the creation of the Australian Chapter of SWS was granted on 11 August 2000 at the SWS 2000 annual meeting in Quebec, Canada. The Australian Chapter is the first chapter located in a country outside of North America, a fact of which we are quite proud.
The Australian Chapter was founded with the intent of bringing together wetland scientists and other professionals from around Australia (and Oceania) who share common interests in wetland science and management.
SWS Oceania shares the SWS International vision with a regional emphasis on developing and facilitating wetland science, management/practice and policy networks within the Oceania region.
Objectives
- To promote innovation in wetland science in the Oceania region
- To provide policy guidance underpinned by good wetland science
- To develop and facilitate wetland science, management/practice and policy connections and networks within Oceania, including pacific island communities
- To develop and facilitate connections and networks between the Oceania region and the international wetland science, management/practice and policy community
- To strengthen connections between wetland science, management/practice and policy
- To promote and support wetland science education in the Oceania region
Gillian Davies
Gillian Davies is a Senior Ecologist & Natural Climate Solutions Specialist at BSC Group, Inc., where her work focuses on climate change and wetlands, working with local communities to develop Nature-based Solutions, particularly wetland, forest, and soil conservation and restoration, and providing wetland peer reviews for Conservation Commissions. She is a Visiting Scholar at Tufts University Global Development and Environment Institute, is Immediate Past President of the Society of Wetland Scientists Professional Certification Program, was the 2016-2017 SWS President, is a co-lead for the SWS Climate Change and Wetlands Initiative and chairs the SWS Rights of Wetlands Section and the WOTUS ad hoc sub-committee. She serves on the International Association for Ecology (INTECOL) Wetlands Working Group. Gillian served on the Massachusetts Healthy Soils Action Plan working group. Gillian has a Master of Environmental Studies degree with a concentration in ecosystem ecology from the Yale School of the Environment, and a bachelor’s degree from Williams College. She is a certified Professional Wetland Scientist, a Registered Soil Scientist, and has received the SWS President’s Service and SWS 40th Anniversary Awards. In her spare time, she and her husband enjoy hiking, mountain biking and skiing.
Romina Llanos
Bradley Moggridge
Kimberli Ponzio
Kimberli Ponzio has over 36 years of experience working in Florida wetlands as an Environmental Scientist for two water management districts in the state of Florida, USA. Kim has been certified as a Professional Wetland Scientist for 25+ years, finding it important to ensure stakeholders from public, academic, and consultancy sectors that she has the education, work history, and skill-set necessary to deliver professional wetland services, and that she is committed to upholding a high standard of ethical behavior. Kim has been involved in leadership with the Society of Wetland Scientists since 2007, was SWS President in 2015, President of the SWS Professional Certification Program (SWSPCP) in 2020, and currently serves as Co-Chair of the SWSPCP Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. Kim is actively involved in helping to globalize the SWSPCP by making the Program accessible to qualified individuals, regardless of geography or financial standing. Kim’s approach has always been one of a collaborative spirit, which she believes is one of the most powerful mechanisms to further the cause of conserving, restoring, and protecting wetlands.
Joseph Schubauer-Berigan Ph.D.
Michael Walsh
I'm a landscape epidemiologist and disease ecologist with the Sydney School of Public Health and the Sydney Institute for Infectious Diseases. I'm interested in the complex ecologies of pathogens and their interactions with hosts, vectors, and environments. I combine methods from spatial and infectious disease epidemiology with applications of community ecology, biogeography, and macroecology to employ transdisciplinary One Health approaches to understand the distribution of pathogens and their transmission processes, especially those processes that involve arthropod vectors. I'm particularly interested in the ways in which interactions between wildlife, domesticated animals, and humans in wetlands facilitate pathogen spillover from maintenance communities to novel or target recipient hosts.
Gabriel Wanyoike
Fire in Wetlands Forum
September 8-9, 2021
An online forum to bring together scientists and managers to share knowledge and experience and identify future priorities for understanding fire impacts, management, mitigation, and traditional burning.
Fire in Wetlands Forum Program and Abstracts
Wetland Care Australia
Wetland Info
Queensland's wetland management information site
wetlandinfo.ehp.qld.gov.au