Geotourism encompasses the underlying geological structure and processes of a region and how this affects the vegetation, wildlife and human culture (old and new). A Geofest this year includes two workshops on Geotourism in Indonesia and one in Sydney, Australia: 5th Geotourism Festival & International Conference An Australian – Indonesian collaborative project “Volcano as a World Class Sustainable Geotourism Destination“
For details of the full 3 days plus events in Indonesia visit the Geofest website
The Sydney component of GEOFEST 2024 will be 18th and 19th July 2024 at the University of Sydney
Associated with this event, Wildlife Tourism Australia is running a workshop on wildlife tourism on 20th July at the same venue.
Visit https://geofest.com.au/wildlife-tourism/ for further details
From the Geofest website
Wildlife Tourism in Australia and Indonesia and its relationship to Geotourism
Led by Dr Ronda Green, President of Wildlife Tourism Australia with specialised knowledge of wildlife in the Asia Pacific region.
Indonesia and Australia are both amongst the world’s highest-ranking countries in terms of biodiversity and endemism. The two countries mostly harbour quite different fauna and flora, but also share quite a few taxonomic groups such as fruit bats, marsupials, monotremes, cassowaries, megapodes, bowerbirds, birds of paradise, cuckoos, crocodiles, and monitor lizards.
The workshop will discuss these shared groups and some of the endemic creatures of both countries.
Some of the species will also be considered in relation to their dependence on kinds of soils or landscapes, and in some cases their own influence on soils.
Finally, the workshop discusses some ideas on incorporating wildlife interpretation into geotourism displays and activities.
Provisional Program
9.00am. Welcome. Dr Ronda Green, research ecologist (Griffith University), chair of Wildlife Tourism Australia, chair of Biodiversity Working Group within IUCN’s Tourism and Protected Areas Group.
9.05am. Wildlife of two highly diverse but mostly very different close neighbours, Australia and Indonesia: endemism, some intriguing examples of behaviour and ecology, and relationships of animals with soils and landscapes. Dr Ronda Green
9.45am. The primates of Indonesia. Professor Jatna Supriatna (online), University of Indonesia, Indonesia Academy of Science
10.25am Morning tea
10.55am. Australasian Exchanges and Extinctions: why is Australia, New Guinea and Wallacea so alike and yet so different? Professor Julien Louys, Palaeontology, Griffith University
11.35am. Roundtable Discussion. Arousing tourist awareness of and interest in lesser-known creatures in volcanic landscapes?
12.10pm. Lunch.
1.10pm. Let’s keep our animals where they belong: forensic investigations into illegal wildlife trafficking in Australia and Indonesia. Dr Simin Maleknia, Tetratherix Medical Devices.
1.40pm. Different ways of presenting local wildlife to tourists: animals commonly seen; animals present but rare or cryptic; and animals of past eras. Dr Ronda Green
2.10pm. Roundtable discussion. Ways of interpreting wildlife in geotourism: examples and idea.
2.40pm. Afternoon tea.
3.10pm. General open discussion on potential and techniques for including wildlife in geotourism.
Coffee and tea and lunch provided
4.00 pm concludes
COST: $50 (students $20)
Our speakers
Prof Julien Louys is Deputy Director of the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution specialising in the development of analytical methods of palaeoenvironmental reconstructions using the mammalian fossil record, where he has developed and applied new ways of examining environments in deep time. Over the last 15 years has established a multi-disciplinary research agenda with the aim of advancing vertebrate palaeoecology beyond one that simply reconstructs past environments to one which makes important and recognised contributions to ecology, conservation, and evolutionary biology. His research has focused on examining the mammal fossil record at several scales, from phenotypes, whole organisms, to entire communities to provide the most holistic understanding of the interaction between species and their environments. He has a particular interest in examining the megafauna extinctions in Asia and Australia and has undertaken both field and laboratory studies to better understand the impacts of environmental change and human influence on extinctions over the last 2 million years. Louys is a qualified cave diver and has been conducting pioneering research in underwater palaeontology and the study of submerged sites. Louys has over 10 years international experience in remote and challenging fieldwork across Australia, Africa, and Asia, and has a demonstrated track record in project leadership, spearheading Future Fellowship, National Geographic, Leakey Foundation, and Ian Potter Foundation projects.
Professor Jatna Supriatna is a senior lecturer at the Biology Department, University of Indonesia, a member of Indonesian Academic of Sciences and Chairman of the Research Center for Climate Change (University of Indonesia). He has published 12 books and over 100 articles in international journals (Science, Nature, Conservation Biology, Evolution, Primate Conservation, etc.), mostly on Indonesia’s biodiversity and environment.For his dedication and contribution in the field of Natural Science research in Indonesia he received several distinguished awards, including from his Royal Highness Prince of Bernhard of the Netherlands in 1999, the Habibie Award in 2009 and the Achmad Bakrie Award in 2011. He has been elected as member of Indonesian Academic of Sciences (AIPI) in 2012. His recent book “Nature Travelling in the National Parks” tells his experiences in exploring various national parks both inside and outside the country as well as giving a scholarly overview of the nation’s national parks and the history of their development, challenges to park management and suggestions for overcoming some of the obstacles to their contribution to tourism, conservation and local economies. His past roles have included (amongst others) chief editor of the scientific journal ‘Tropical Biodiversity’, chairman of the Jakarta Chapter of the Indonesia Biologist Association, regional vice president of Conservation International, president of South East Asia Primatologist Association, supervisor of many postgraduate students from Indonesia, Australia, USA and elsewhere, and he has been a board member of operations such as the Earthwatch Institute, the Biodiversity and Development Foundation and Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil. He has also discovered or helped discover many new species of animals including primates, reptiles and amphibians.
Dr Simin Maleknia is WTA’s treasurer, and a forensic scientist with extensive experience in environmental and sustainability research. Her current research is in wildlife conservation through developing tools to protect native and endangered species. These help to identify the geographical origins of species in relation to illegal wildlife trade and trafficking, which is seriously threatening fauna species around the world including both Australia and Indonesia. Simin co-convened the ‘Inaugural Illegal Wildlife Trafficking Workshop’ held in Sydney in June 2017. She also presented her pioneering research in Australia on ‘Chemical and Elemental Profiling of Wildlife’.This follows her presentation on ‘Exploring Forensic Tools to Identify Origins of Wildlife (Combatting Illegal Wildlife Trafficking)’ at the WTA Conference held in Adelaide in November 2016.
Dr. Ronda Green holds a Ph.D. in Zoology and is an adjunct research fellow at Environmental Futures, Griffith University an ecotour proprietor (Araucaria Ecotours) and environmental consultant (mostly fauna surveys). Her main research involves seed dispersal by fruit-eating animals and the effects of habitat alteration on wildlife. Publications and presentations by Ronda can be viewed at http://www.learnaboutwildlife.com/Ronda_Green.html Ronda has been involved in wildlife tourism for several decades, has published books and articles on wildlife tourism as well as research reports for the Sustainable Tourism CRC and has initiated and run various wildlife workshops and conferences. She is also the Chair of the Scenic Rim Branch of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland and chair of the Biodiversity Working Group within IUCN’s Tourism and Protected Areas Group. She is currently developing the Scenic Rim Wildlife Information Centre (including 500 million years history forming our current landscapes) near Rathdowney, South East Queensland. Ronda was also co-editor (with Noel Scott) of a UNWTO report on Sustainable Wildlife Tourism in Asia and the Pacific, and has been an invited speaker on sustainable wildlife tourism in Australia, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan.
Visit https://geofest.com.au/wildlife-tourism/ for further details
You may like to join in all three days of the geotourism and wildlife tourism. Visit the Geofest website