Lecturers to inspire you!

Michael Weston
Wildlife and Conservation Biology

MOST people treat rainforest environments with reverence, but use beaches as their own football ovals.  This is one difference in behaviour that is putting flora and fauna that live on the coast at risk.

In his role at Deakin University, Wildlife and Conservation Biology lecturer Michael Weston aims to draw attention to the fragility of Australia’s coast and make people aware of the impact of their behaviour.  He believes that as a scientist, he is in a fortunate position to be able to bring the issue into the public realm and add his voice to debate.

“I think that academics have a broad role in the community to take their findings and assist in policy formation,” Dr Weston said.  “It is also an opportunity that scientists have, to get involved in public debate.”

As a lecturer, he aims to provide students not only with the skills and knowledge to successfully work in the environmental field, but also with the confidence to follow his lead in contributing to public debate on environmental policy.

“I want to take the opportunity to inspire students and young scientists to get involved in public debate and environment graduates are in the fortunate position to be able to do that,” he said.
 
Before joining Deakin Dr Weston gained a wealth of industry experience to draw upon for his classes after 17 years as a conservation biologist and six years in senior positions with Birds Australia, Australia’s senior conservation non-government organisation .  As Research and Conservation Manager with Birds Australia, he was impressed with the skills and knowledge of Deakin graduates he helped employ.

“I was impressed with their ability to understand the context of what they were doing and the skills they had,” he said.

Dr Weston has also worked extensively in the initiation, design and implementation of many research projects in the area of conservation biology.  His joint research into beach nesting birds won a Victorian Coastal Award for Excellence in Species Protection this year and he is looking forward to further pursuing that research in Portsea, Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove, as a result of his fascination with human behaviour and its relation to the environment.

“I think that people’s reaction with the environment is really interesting and I am fascinated by the question of human behaviour,” Dr Weston said.

“Things like, why do people regard rainforests as fragile environments, but use beaches like a football grounds?  It is a big problem on the coast because people want to live there.”

Dr Weston said he hoped his research and education role would help to change attitudes in time.

“With the numbers of people growing all of the time, we need to accept the consequences of our behaviour.  If we find this unacceptable, then we need to make some changes.  I can see that positive changes are happening, but I’m not sure that’s happening at a rate that will save some of our native species.  Somehow we need to coexist with the wildlife assets we have,” he said.