Australia-Indonesia in Conversation 2022

The Faculty of Arts at The University of Melbourne in partnership with the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIPOL) at Universitas Gadjah Mada will host the second annual mini-conference on July 20-21, 2022 in the series Australia-Indonesia in Conversation. This fully online conference will consist of a series of five round table panel discussions held over two half-day sessions for Indonesian, Australian and interested global audiences. The conference seeks to further enhance bilateral partnerships and shared knowledge, experiences and insights between Australia and Indonesia through roundtable discussions involving diplomats, government representatives, researchers, civil society organisation and private sector representatives, and other practitioners and community workers. There will be opportunities for Q&A from audiences on each country's efforts to manage environmental and resource challenges and to protect the Anthropocene into the future as our climate changes, through a range of policies, actions and innovations.

Full details of conference speakers can be found on the conference website.

Panel discussions

Wednesday 20 July, 2022

Panel 1: Opening: Australia-Indonesia in Conversation: Regional Cooperation in response to Global Challenges

In this opening panel senior representatives from both universities and the governments of both countries will share expertise and insights into future approaches and considerations strategies for sustainability, managing the environment and natural resources, and planning for climate futures.

08:30 AM - 10:00 AM (GMT+7) – Indonesia (WIB)

11:30 AM - 13:00 PM (GMT+10) – Australia (AEST)

Panel 2: Responding to National and Global Energy and Climate Challenges: Policy and Innovation

In an increasingly interconnected and globalised world, the diverse natural resource endowments in Australia and Indonesia are under increasing pressure for competing uses, from extraction to tourism. As populations grow and economic sectors change in both countries, there is growing demand for fossil fuels and renewable energy sources. The growth of the middle class in Asia and elsewhere is also driving consumer demand and the consequent upscale in the expansion of agribusinesses and the use of natural resources for global and local economic development, with implications for the degradation of land and the environment and wellbeing of peoples in these regions. Equally, as the globe begins to warm, both countries face significant future challenges in responding to extreme weather events, changing patterns of rainfall and temperature, rising oceans and many other challenges. This panel considers policies and innovations in responding to national and global energy and climate challenges.

10:30 AM - 12:30 PM (GMT+7) – Indonesia (WIB)

13:30 PM - 15:30 PM (GMT+10) – Australia (AEST)

Panel 3. Social Inclusion and Local Knowledge in Environmental Management and Sustainability

Communities, indigenous groups, and disadvantaged groups are frequently impacted by environmental degradation and pollution from natural resource extraction, large-scale agribusiness, plastic pollution, and the growing impacts of climate change, often with limited avenues for protest or redress. Many that live in and around forested areas, or in coastal areas endowed areas have significant knowledge on how to sustainably draw from and protect the environment. Community groups have used There is also significant innovations to from community groups and other initiatives on repairing or improveing the environment, or adapting to challenges. Further to this activists have used the creative arts in innovative ways to address sustainability and draw attention to the urgent climate crisis. Bringing together examples from both Australia and Indonesia this panel will discuss how to ensure planning for environmental management, sustainable resource use and climate futures incorporates the concerns and needs of more vulnerable and often marginalised groups, as well as drawing from local and indigenous knowledge. It will also highlight innovative grassroots responses to raise awareness about and address environmental degradation, pollution and climate futures.

13:00 PM - 15:00 PM (GMT+7) – Indonesia (WIB)

16:00 PM - 18:00 PM (GMT+10) – Australia (AEST)

Thursday 21 July, 2022

Panel 4: Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes

Amidst rising concerns about the dual climate and biodiversity crises, agendas seeking to promote the more sustainable management of forests, natural resources and agricultural landscapes have continued to rise in prominence around the world. In both Australia and Indonesia, the urgency of such agendas is intensified by these countries’ ownership of unique ecosystems of enormous significance to the planet’s future, and by the acute risks posed to these ecosystems by models of agricultural production that prioritize economic or developmental aims in tension with conservation agendas. Against this backdrop, alliances of government and private sector actors are increasingly working to develop innovative new approaches oriented towards supporting transitions to more sustainable agricultural landscapes. While such agendas are being supported by some powerful government and market actors, they also face significant challenges, as they grapple to navigate conflicting pressures from conflicting economic and policy agendas—linked to wider debates about both food security and changing use of biofuels. This panel will bring together a diverse array of experts from both Indonesia and Australia to share knowledge and perspectives on promising new approaches for pursuing the challenging yet urgent task of supporting sustainable landscape management.

09:00 AM - 11:00 AM (GMT+7) – Indonesia (WIB)

12:00 PM - 14:00 PM (GMT+10) – Australia (AEST)

Panel 5: Sustainable Cities and Local/ Regional Initiatives

It is one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals to achieve sustainable cities and communities. This involves engineering plans to reduce their environmental impact of cities and communities by means of urban planning and management. Yet reaching this goal involves multiple challenges. Becoming a sustainable city in the context of climate change requires paying attention to issues such as growing urban populations, building sustainable housing and managing urban heat, transport and water supplies. This panel will discuss the challenges that city governments and residents face in terms of achieving sustainability. Speakers will present examples of initiatives as well as policies and on the ground adaptations that have been made to make cities and regions more sustainable. They will address issues that are shared challenges for Australia and Indonesia such as rising urban densification and urban sprawl in addition to the increasing threats of climate change such bushfires and flooding resulting from extreme weather.

11:30 AM - 13:30 PM (GMT+7) – Indonesia (WIB)

14:30 PM - 16:30 PM (GMT+10) – Australia (AEST)

We look forward to seeing you at Australia-Indonesia in Conversation: Managing Environmental and Resource Challenges and Thinking about Climate Futures.

Sincerely,

Conference Convenors:

Dr Rachael Diprose

Professor Kate McGregor

Associate Professor Kate Macdonald

Dr Poppy Winanti

Dr Fina Itriyati

This conference is co-hosted by:

The Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne

The Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIPOL), Universitas Gadjah Mada