Don Burnside, on behalf of the Australian Organising Committee
June 2025 is not that far away and a fourth announcement for the Congress can be found on https://irc2025.rangelandcongress.org/ highlighting important key dates to register, to be a sponsor or host a trade exhibit or weekend workshop, or to take part in a pre-Congress tour.
If you are a serious rangeland person, this is an event you should not miss!
It is likely to be at least 24 years before Australia will have an opportunity to hold an International Rangeland Congress. It will be a rare opportunity to network – and make friends, and renew friendships – with people from all over the world, to learn about the different challenges and opportunities in the world’s rangeland regions, and to share experiences in working in the rangelands. We are planning to have 600+ people at the Congress, and so it will be a busy and exciting place to be.
The IRC Program
The theme of the Congress is ‘Working Together for our Global Rangelands Future’.
The Congress will run over five days, with four days of keynote presentations covering the sub-themes, some specialist forums, and contributed presentations in 45 concurrent sessions, plus many posters.
Congress sub-themes are:
- Valuing rangelands and pastoral systems for their societal contribution
- Co-design, partnerships, and incorporating traditional knowledge for more enduring rangeland outcomes
- Technology, information systems, communication, and big data to aid monitoring and decision making
- Integrating rangeland ecology into management
- Managing risk – climate and other system shocks and trends
- Livestock production systems in a world of changing drivers
- Multi-functional land use in rangelands – moving beyond niche opportunities
The Program sub-committee has received over 550 abstracts from people wishing to present – either as a 15 min presentation, a 5 minute lightnning presentation or a poster, with 136 of these coming from Australia. This tells us that rangeland science and management is alive and well around the globe and in Australia, and the program will reflect the diversity of the work being done by so many people.
You will be able to choose from five mid-congress tours to a range of attractions in and around Adelaide to be held on Wednesday June 4. Get in early to get a seat on your tour of choice.
Keynote speakers
All our invitations to keynote speakers have been enthusiastically accepted. These keynotes provide a great diversity of topics from around the world. The keynote speaker biographies can be found in the fourth announcement but they include Susi Vetter (South Africa), Joe Morrison (Australia), Maria Fernández-Giménez (USA), Appolinaire Djikeng (Kenya), Tungalag (Tungaa) Ulambayar (Mongolia), Nick Webb (USA) and Anika Molesworth (Australia).
Added extras – Pre-Congress tours and Workshops
And if that is not enough, you can still register and Expression of Interest for one of the five Pre-Congress Tours starting in different parts of the continent and arriving in Adelaide two days before the Congress.
Finally, there will be some workshops to be held on the weekend before the Congress, and so please keep an eye on the IRC website for developments as we get closer to the date.
What else can you look forward to?
The Congress will celebrate the Australian Rangeland Society’s 50th birthday. There will also be an Indigenous Knowledge Forum to explore and promote traditional knowledge and partnerships.
Back to the important dates
Those people who have submitted abstracts will have been advised about important dates for submission of full papers. Other key dates are:
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Early Bird Registration – a saving of $100 – will conclude on 30 September 2024
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Lodging an Expression of Interest for joining a Pre-Congress tour – needs to be received by 30 November 2024.
Looking forward to seeing you in Adelaide in June 2025!
From the Australian Organising Committee and All Occasions Group in Adelaide