Keynote & Invited Speakers

Forestry Australia  are delighted to announce the below Keynote and Invited Speakers who will be joining us at our 2025 Conference ‘Restoring forests and landscapes and securing Australia’s future‘.

We had an overwhelming response to the Call for Abstracts, which are currently under review. We look forward to sharing a full list of speakers and a program soon!

Keynote Speakers

Peter Cochrane
Councillor and Vice President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Peter lives on Wodi-Wodi country and is a Councillor and Vice President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He is a member of the Australian Heritage Council and chairs the Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS), the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute, the Australian Tropical Herbarium and the National Benefit Assessment Committee of the Marine National Facility. He is a director of TierraMar Ltd.

Peter is a member of the External Reference Group on Nature for the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science University of NSW.

Dr Joshua Johnston
Forest Fire Research Scientist, Natural Resources Canada /Canadian Forest Service

Dr. Johnston is a former wildland fire fighter and incident commander. Today he is a Forest Fire Research Scientist with the Canadian Forest Service and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the development of remote sensing tools for studying the physical properties of combustion and fire behaviour, and the adaptation of remote sensing tools for operational fire management. Dr. Johnston represents Canada’s satellite fire monitoring interests globally through a number of international leadership roles (e.g. GOFC-GOLD Fire Implementation Team and CEOS WG Disasters). In 2018 he was named the Principal Investigator for the WildFireSat (WFS) satellite mission, and in 2022 he led the mission to a fully funded state, making WildFireSat the world’s first publicly owned, purpose built operational wildfire monitoring satellite system (launch date 2029). Today he continues lead the User and Science Team and provide strategic direction for the mission.