Our Network
Our Vision
Australia's and Aotearoa New Zealand's land managers are equipped with the standards, skills and systems to protect our remarkable landscapes in an efficient and collaborative way.
Our Mission
We’re passionate about protecting Australia's and Aotearoa New Zealand's landscapes by building capacity among people to improve the practice of conservation, through adoption of the Conservation Standards and its supporting systems and tools.
We want to empower people to develop, implement, evaluate, adapt and share effective strategies that achieve measurable conservation results.
Strategies
Strategy 1: Awareness and communications
Raise awareness of the Open Standards amongst conservation decision makers and practitioners in Australia and New Zealand. Provide insight into the benefits and grow the network.
Strategy 2: Conservation Standard systems and tools maintenance and development
Improve the processes, systems and tools used to support conservation projects.
Strategy 3: Conservation Standards skills development
Ongoing support and development for Practitioners and Coaches.
How are we organised?
CCNet Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand is made up of people from NGO’s, government agencies and private industry that really care about keeping our landscapes healthy and our cultures strong.
We find ways to work together to improve our knowledge and skills through peer-review, training, talking and mentoring.
We’re volunteers, we’re not a legal entity, we don’t have a bank account, and we work within a dynamic governance structure.
CCNet Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand has been a franchise of the global CCNet group since 2009 and by 2014 we had 30 active Coaches. We have grown significantly since with many practitioners and Coaches in the region. As a sub-group of the Global Conservation Coaches Network we emphasise and support conservation work in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, while supporting our partners globally.
We organise through our Coordination Team. They are:
Saras Kumar (co-coordinator), Hao Jin Tan (co-coordinator), Leah Feuerherdt (co-coordinator), Clair Dougherty, Natalie Holland, Frank Weisenberger, Pip Walsh, Emma Ignjic, Sasha Brightman, and Bridget Mattingley. You can read more about the CCNet Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand Coordinating Committee members below.
The CCNet Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand Committee
The CCNet Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand Committee members are dedicated professionals working in the conservation space applying the Conservation Standards and Healthy Country Planning to their work. The Committee is responsible for organising events in Australia and New Zealand, representing CCNet Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand at global CCNet meetings, and finding ways to support individuals and organisations within Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand to engage with and apply the Conservation Standards.
Saras Kumar - Director at Conservation Management
Based in Adelaide, South Australia Saras has extensive experience in monitoring and evaluation, community engagement and cooperative management of protected areas. Her expertise is in bringing together local communities, governments, NGOs and corporations to wisely use natural resources and protect areas of conservation significance. She has over twenty years’ experience in South East Asia and Australia in leadership positions within NGO, private and government sectors.
Contact: skumar@conservationmanagement.com.au
Hao Jin Tan - Conservation Leaders Programme Manager at The Nature Conservancy
Haojin has a background in conservation biology and experience working on sustainable commodity production and protected area management effectiveness in the non-profit sector. She currently manages the Conservation Leaders Programme at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Aotearoa New Zealand, helping build capacity and capability in Aotearoa New Zealand on the application of Conservation Standards and its equivalent. Haojin has been an avid user of the CS since 2011 when she joined WWF-Malaysia as a programme officer. Throughout the years, she has progressed from an active CS user, to leading and facilitating colleagues, partners and stakeholders to apply the CS.
Contact: haojin.tan@tnc.org
Leah Feuerherdt - Regional Coordinator at Conservation Management
Based in Queensland, Leah has spent almost a decade working with remote Aboriginal communities in the beautiful desert Country of north west South Australia, and has a background in NRM, community engagement and pest management. Leah has experience working with multiple stakeholders including pastoralists, volunteers, government agencies and Indigenous groups. In 2015, Leah helped co-facilitate some Healthy Country Planning workshops and immediately saw the value in the strategic and participatory process, and is now loving supporting several Ranger teams in QLD and SA with the development and implementation of their Healthy Country Plans.
Clair Dougherty - National Conservation Planning Manager at Bush Heritage Australia
Clair has fifteen years experience in conservation planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and reporting using the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation. Clair has qualifications in Social Science, Environmental Science and Environmental Management and is the National Conservation Planning Coordinator at Bush Heritage Australia. Clair is responsible for coordinating, developing and deploying Bush Heritage’s team of conservation coaches and delivering coaching support to Bush Heritage staff and partners. She is an experienced trainer in the use of the Open Standards and Miradi and its integration with other business systems. She delivers training in CS and supporting systems and tools. Clair has experience in institutionalising the Conservation Standards (CS) and its supporting systems and tools, including Miradi - managing a portfolio of 93 Miradi projects within a Program. Clair is dedicated to the responsible use and protection of this beautiful planet, to human rights, diversity and equity.
Contact: clair.dougherty@bushheritage.org.au
Natalie Holland - Conservation Projects Manager at The Nature Conservancy
Natalie has a career spanning over 17 years working in the not-for-profit conservation sector in Australia. Currently, Natalie is the Conservation Projects Manager for The Nature Conservancy’s Australia Program, supporting the Conservancy’s Murray Darling Basin Program. Previously at The Conservancy, she led a capacity building program for Indigenous groups across Northern Australia in the use of Healthy Country Planning, an adaptation of the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation. Natalie is a Churchill Fellow recipient, undertaking a project which examined the planning, implementation, and stewardship of landscape-scale projects. Natalie has extensive experience in community and private land conservation through roles supporting community involvement in threatened species with WWF-Australia in the Threatened Species Network, and with private landholders and community groups working as the Stewardship Program Manager for Trust for Nature (Victoria).
Contact: nholland@TNC.org
Pip Walsh - Consultant at Community Solutions
Pip has over twenty-five years’ experience working in conservation and is highly regarded for her strategic planning skills. Pip worked on the leadership teams of WWF Australia, Greening Australia and Bush Heritage Australia with a strong focus on change management and systems development. At Bush Heritage she managed a 2 million ha portfolio of private protected areas and worked on developing systems and support for partner organisations to manage their own protected areas.
Pip has extensive experience in leading the use of the Conservation Standards. She works closely with a number of organisations in Australia and the Asia Pacific as a Conservation Coach, through which networks she shares her passion for equipping teams to learn from their projects and each other. Pip brings together strong policy and evaluation experience, a high level of facilitation skills as well as a sound understanding of a diversity of funding, governance and operational models.
Contact: pip@communitysolutions.com.au
Frank Weisenberger - Consultant at Frank Weisenberger Consulting
Frank is a planning professional, specialised in Indigenous issues, project management, community consultations, stakeholder engagement and meeting facilitation. Equipped with a tertiary background in Applied Geography, Anthropology and Tourism Management, Frank has spent the past twelve years working extensively with Indigenous communities across Australia and globally on conservation planning and strategic natural and cultural resource management programs.
Frank has gained extensive experience in the facilitation of the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation by training, facilitating and coaching teams in Conservation Action Planning / Healthy Country Planning projects and through his role in the Management Committee of the Australian Conservation Coaches network and the Community of Practice - Indigenous Conservation Standards Projects.
Dr Sarah Pearson - Conservation Strategy and Planning Manager at Birdlife Australia
Sarah brings strategy, planning, and project management skills to her work in conservation. Since joining BirdLife Australia in 2019, Sarah has applied the Conservation Standards to the conservation of threatened birds and their habitat, including the coordination of two multi-species conservation action plans and integration of the Conservation Standards within recovery planning processes. In addition to supporting the adoption of the Conservation Standards at multiple scales, Sarah uses her strategy and planning expertise to guide and support implementation of BirdLife Australia's new 10-year strategic plan.
Contact: sarah.pearson@birdlife.org.au
Bridget Mattingley - Conservation Planner at Bush Heritage Australia
Based on Bunurong Country in Victoria, Bridget is a conservation planner at Bush Heritage Australia. In this role, she helps to build capacity and support the development, implementation, and review of conservation plans. For the past 8 years, Bridget has worked in natural and cultural resource management. Her background is in conservation and international development, with experience in group facilitation, participatory planning, and monitoring and evaluation approaches. She is familiar working in cross-cultural contexts, previously working in the beautiful Western Desert of WA supporting cultural and land management programs.
Bridget is passionate about learning from, working alongside and supporting Traditional Owner led initiatives that equally value First Nations' expert knowledge and western science. She believes in the value of interdisciplinary, collaborative approaches and is motivated to be part of a global community helping to achieve positive outcomes for climate, biodiversity, and people.