Are you passionate about the conservation of our threatened native plants?

Use your excellent interpersonal, communication and organisational skills to:

• work collaboratively with a diverse team of professionals to coordinate planning and delivery of a complex program.
• deliver a complex project/set of tasks in a timely manner, with minimal supervision, and work within strict deadlines.
• prepare communications materials for a broad range of audiences, including technical documents, reports to funding bodies, and communication documents for a general audience.

About the role

In this new position, you will coordinate recovery actions for four EPBC-listed Critically Endangered Myrtle Rust affected plant species: Rhodomyrtus psidioides (Native Guava); Gossia gonoclada (Angle-stemmed Myrtle); Rhodamnia rubescens (Scrub Turpentine) and Rhodamnia maideniana (Smooth Scrub Turpentine) through the formalisation of a current consortium, plus new partners, into a Recovery Coordination Team and:

1. Facilitate agreement on, and coordinate delivery of, priority activities in the recovery program, through supporting effective operation of the Recovery Coordination Team.
2. Identify resourcing needs and potential operational sources for these, and potential future partnerships, for ongoing progress (beyond life of this project) for recovery of the target species.
3. Report on progress towards target species recovery and consolidation of working partnerships, concordant with relevant Australian Government reporting requirements for registered Recovery Teams.
4. Provide secretariat support to the Recovery Coordination Team.
5. Prepare and circulate communications updates for the Recovery Coordination Team, including recording and circulating meeting minutes, and recovery action program update for distribution to the broader stakeholder network. Assist the Chair in the preparation of other whole-of-program communications materials and documents as required.
6. Maintain accurate records of team membership, actions and the progress status of actions.
7. Facilitate internal and external consultation processes for the Recovery Coordination Team.

To be successful in this role, you will need a Bachelor's degree or equivalent in natural sciences, advanced experience in threatened species management and recovery, demonstrated familiarity with fundamental documents on the Myrtle Rust problem and demonstrated understanding of issues and policies in plant conservation at species and ecological community level. A knowledge of plant conservation techniques and a willingness to travel and work flexibly to meet the needs of the program are also essential.

Background

Since its introduction to Australia in 2010, the exotic fungal disease Myrtle Rust has put 20-40 Myrtaceae species at risk of near-term extinction or serious decline. The Australian Network for Plant Conservation (ANPC) has played a key role in national Myrtle Rust matters since 2011, maintains a comprehensive information hub and was instrumental in developing the 2020 National Action Plan for Myrtle Rust (NAPMR) which is the action template for Myrtle Rust-affected species used by Commonwealth, States and researchers. The conservation path entails emergency germplasm capture, ex situ conservation, the selection of rust-tolerance traits, and eventual reinforcement or reintroduction of populations in the wild. Over the last 2 years, along with many partners including government departments and botanic gardens, the ANPC established a successful pilot dispersed-custody model for Native Guava with representative sampling and propagation of surviving wild germplasm, genetic management and communications/training activities, and commenced some actions for Scrub Turpentine.

Who we are

The Australian Network for Plant Conservation (ANPC) is a national not-for-profit organisation with a mission to 'Promote and develop plant conservation in Australia '. We are a membership based organisation that's been around since 1991. We work with a wide range of stakeholders including botanic gardens, local state and federal governments, research institutions, other NGOs, practitioners and community groups.

What we do

The ANPC brings people together (such as scientists, researchers, land managers, consultants, volunteers and students) from across Australia to collaborate, network and share information in an effort to conserve our native plant species and vegetation communities, prevent further extinctions and restore our natural areas and biodiversity. To achieve this we:

• hold training workshops, webinars and conferences.
• publish guidelines such as how to propagate and translocate threatened plants back into the wild.
• promote plant conservation and publish a quarterly journal Australasian Plant Conservation (APC).
• coordinate high priority projects with multiple stakeholders such as this project.