Australian Conservation Foundation

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is an Australian non-profit, community-based environmental organisation focused on advocacy, policy research and community outreach.

History

The Australian Conservation Foundation was established as an incorporated body in 1966 after distinguished Australian scientist Sir Francis Ratcliffe was inspired by a 1963 memo from the Duke of Edinburgh to establish a national conservation body. Sir Garfield Barwick, Chief Justice of the High Court, was appointed ACF's first President.

Campaigns & Programs

The Australian Conservation Foundation covers a wide range of environmental and sustainability issues, including: protected areas, sustainable agriculture and land management, climate change and energy, nuclear issues, sustainable consumption, forests, oceans, sustainable cities, corporate environmental responsibility, environmental law reform, healthy rivers and water management, and ecologically sustainable development in northern Australia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea.

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 has been established by the ACF consisting of $3000 and a plaque made to individuals who have made an outstanding voluntary contribution to the Australian environment. The award is announced on June 5, 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 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

Over ninety percent of ACF's funding is received from its members and supporters, with the small remainder derived from government grants and from selected companies.

Organization

The Australian Conservation Foundation is governed by a thirty-nine member Council of Representatives elected every three years by the organization's membership. The Council meets regularly to determine organizational 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 organizational 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, distinguished Australian scientist and Emeritus Professor of Science, Technology and Society at Griffith University, was appointed President, replacing Peter Garrett. Don Henry has been the Executive Director of the Australian Conservation Foundation since 1998.

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

ee also

*Tasmanian Wilderness Society
*Woodchipping
*Anti-nuclear movement in Australia

External links

* [http://www.acfonline.org.au/ Australian Conservation Foundation]
* [http://www.whoonearthcares.com/ Who On Earth Cares]

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