NAT BURKE

I was a bookish kid growing up in Canberra - Ngunnawal Country. My version of the Faraway Tree was a mountain gum (Eucalyptus dalrympleana) in Namadgi National Park, and the nature reserves and plantation forests in and around Canberra’s southwest were the Rivendells and Narnias of my imagination. These places still hold magic for me today. I've always been interested in different cultural, political and knowledge systems and I completed undergrad and postgrad degrees in Asian Studies and Applied Anthropology at the Australian National University. Before joining WWF in 2016, I worked in social development and human rights roles for the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and World Vision. I've worked on community development projects and advocacy campaigns in the Pacific, Southeast Asia and East Africa. In all of these places, I saw how environmental destruction and biodiversity loss directly threaten peace and prosperity and how it is the poorest and most marginalised people who are disproportionately affected by the ecological crises facing our world. But I also saw that it’s local and indigenous people who often hold the solutions to these problems. Today, I manage a team of passionate conservationists that work with Indigenous and local communities in Australia and across Asia and the Pacific to achieve conservation outcomes while supporting sustainable and inclusive development.