Max Finlayson

Prof Max Finlayson is an internationally renowned wetland ecologist with extensive experience in Australia and internationally in water pollution, mining and agricultural impacts, invasive species, climate change, and human wellbeing and wetlands.

He has participated in global assessments such as those conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the Global Environment Outlook, and the Global Wetland Outlook. He was the 2019-20 President of the Society of Wetland Scientists, the pre-eminent international society for wetland researchers and practitioners.

He was for 25 years from the early 1990s a technical advisor to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and has written extensively on wetland ecology and management, including on climate change and community participation.

Current research interests include wetland and river management, planning and policies; community and indigenous peoples’ involvement in wetland and river management; integration of social, economic and ecologic research; trade-offs among wetland users and uses; water availability and climate change; and wetland ecosystem services.