Join the ANU Institute for Water Futures for a seminar by Dr Tessa Maurer. A Project Scientist at U.S.-based conservation finance organisation Blue Forest Conservation, Tessa will discuss the conservation finance model and how it can engage novel funding streams for environmental restoration and water protection.

She will explain the guiding principles of this model, the governance structures that make it successful, and the role of the ecological sciences as a basis for leveraging new funds. She will focus on the application of this model for water resources and quality protection as well as the power of water-related benefits to catalyze and drive new funding streams. Her aim is to catalyze a discussion about how the needs and opportunities for water protection in a U.S. context can inform projects in Australia and vice versa.

We encourage you to attend this seminar in person, however, if you are unable to, please join us virtually through Zoom via this link.

The seminar will run from 12-1pm, followed by a complimentary light lunch.

About the speaker

Tessa Maurer is a Senior Project Scientist at Blue Forest Conservation, a U.S.-based non-profit conservation finance organization. Her work focuses on building and scaling environmental restoration projects through stakeholder-focused, science-based analysis of ecosystem service benefits, particularly in fire-prone areas of the Western U.S. She also conducts peer-reviewed research projects in the interest of furthering our understanding of the multiple co-benefits of healthy, resilient landscapes. Tessa holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley where her research focused on leveraging novel data sources for streamflow and hydrologic modeling for hydropower and water resources.