Paul Elton

Paul Elton is a doctoral researcher, non-executive director, and adviser on biodiversity conservation and climate action, living and working on Eora, Yuin, and Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country. Paul is a PhD candidate at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University (also affiliated with CBCS via UQ’s Professor Martine Maron as a co-supervisor).

Paul’s research is seeking to understand costs and public funding needs, and to identify options for innovative and transformative reforms to enable Australian governments to achieve the conservation objectives of the Global Biodiversity Framework. Paul’s research will also seek to better understand the extent to which private funding and the potential to reform or repurpose biodiversity harmful subsidies may contribute to these objectives and reduce the call on governments’ budgets.

Paul is also a non-executive director with Greening Australia, which works on restoration programs, nature-based solutions to climate change, and native seed production here in Australia; and with NatureCo, a global for-purpose business which works to deliver high-integrity and high-impact nature-based carbon projects in the Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America.

Paul was previously the CEO of the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust. You can find out more about Paul at Paul Elton | LinkedIn. 

Publications

Elton P and Fitzsimons JA (2023). Framework features enabling faster establishment and better management of privately protected areas in New South Wales, Australia. Frontiers in Conservation Science. 4:1277254. doi: 10.3389/fcosc.2023.1277254 

Fitzsimons, J.A., Woods, R., Woods, J., Woods, I., Ridge, K., Brettschneider, M., Perceval, C., Goodwin, A., Smillie, K., Elton, P., Kingsford, R.T., 2025. Establishing large, permanent protection outcomes on Indigenous-owned private land: Innovations at Gayini, Australia. Conservation Science and Practice. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.70055