Dr Katie Woolaston

Katie Woolaston is an inter-disciplinary researcher, lawyer and Senior Lecturer in the School of Law at QUT. She holds a Masters in Law (specialising in Human Rights & Social Justice) from the University of New South Wales, and a PhD in Environmental Law from Griffith University. Dr Woolaston’s research is focused on international and domestic wildlife law and the regulation of the human-wildlife relationship. She is particularly interested in using the social sciences to resolve long-held and deeply-rooted attitudes and values that are contrary to conservation and embedding such processes in law and policy. Dr Woolaston’s current research is focused on human-wildlife conflicts, and the integration of One Health approaches in wildlife trade and environmental policy in the wake of COVID-19. She was an expert on the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) panel concerning Biodiversity and Pandemics, and is on the Technical Advisory Group of the United Nations Environment Program ‘Nature4Health’ Initiative. She is an Associate Editor of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Environmental Law, and Vice-President of Australia’s National Environmental Law Association.

Her first book, titled ‘Ecological Vulnerability: The Law and Governance of Human-Wildlife Relationships’ was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022.

‘Our relationship with biodiversity can be life and society altering. It is vitally important, complex and multidimensional. Our biodiversity laws should be too. I want to make sure that the effects of declining species levels are considered in every area of law and policy, from the UN down to the local level.’

Books and Book chapters by Katie Woolaston

Ecological Vulnerability

Woolaston, Katie (2022) Ecological Vulnerability: The Law and Governance of Human-Wildlife Relationships

Books and Book chapters by Katie Woolaston

Ecological Vulnerability

Chapter four: Wildlife and international law: can feminism transform our relationship with nature?

Reports and submissions by Katie Woolaston

Submission to the Clean Economy Jobs, Resources and Transport Committee on the Clean Economy Jobs Bill 2024

Submission to the Environmental Protection (Powers and Penalties) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024

Working Together to Protect Australia in the Age of Pandemics : Managing the Environmental Drivers of Zoonotic Disease Risks

NELA submission: Senate Inquiry into Australia's Fauna and Flora Extinction Crisis

Submission to the Inquiry on the Environmental and Other Legislation (Reversal of Great Barrier Reef Protection Measures) Amendment Bill 2021

Workshop Report on Biodiversity and Pandemics of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Journal articles by Katie Woolaston

Best Practice Mechanisms for Biodiversity Conservation Law and Policy

An Argument for Pandemic Risk Management using a Multidisciplinary One Health Approach to Governance: An Australian Case Study

Environmental Justice in the Post Covid-19 Regulation of Wildlife Trade and Markets

An argument for pandemic risk management using a multidisciplinary One Health approach to governance: an Australian case study

A Review of the Role of Law and Policy in Human-Wildlife Conflict

The Balance of Environmental Protection and Economic Development in Federal Decision-making

Shared vulnerability as the missing link in wildlife trade governance : A COVID-19 case study

Feature articles by Katie Woolaston

UN report says up to 850,000 animal viruses could be caught by humans, unless we protect nature

Most laws ignore ‘human-wildlife conflict’. This makes us vulnerable to pandemics

Dingoes and humans were once friends. Separating them could be why they attack

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