Aila Keto

Aila Keto
AO
Born
Aila Inkeri Keto

(1943-03-14)14 March 1943
Tully, Queensland
NationalityAustralian
Alma materUniversity of Queensland
Known for
  • Tropical rainforests of North Queensland : their conservation significance / a report to the Australian Heritage Commission by the Rainforest Conservation Society of Queensland (1986)[6]
  • The central eastern rainforests of Australia : World Heritage nomination (1992)[7]
  • Australian Rainforest Conservation Society (1982-Present)
SpouseKeith Scott
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsMicrobiology, Ecology, Conservation
Institutions
Thesis Studies on pig and rabbit creatine kinases (PhD Thesis)  (1980)

Aila Inkeri Keto AO (born 14 March 1943) is an Australian environmentalist. She is the founder and President of the Rainforest Conservation Society in Queensland, Australia, now known as the Australian Rainforest Conservation Society. In 2005, Keto was a recipient of the Queensland Greats Awards.[8]

Born in Tully, Queensland, Australia,[9] to parents of Finnish origin,[10] Dr Keto originally studied biochemistry and worked at the University of Queensland.[11]

In 1992, Keto received the IUCN Fred M. Packard Award in recognition of "outstanding service to protected and conserved areas"[1] and in 1994 she was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia for “service to conservation, particularly through promoting the protection and management of the wet tropical rainforests of Queensland”. [2] She was nominated as Queenslander of the Year in 2000 and in 2001 she was awarded a Centenary Medal, "for service as an expert on wet tropics and as a leading conservationist and academic".[3]

In 2005, Dr Keto was awarded the Volvo Environment Prize for her work which, led to the protection of more than 15,000 square kilometres (5,800 sq mi) of Queensland's rainforest.[4] This is only one of a series of awards that have been given to her for her environmental and conservation work[12] which has resulted in three successful nominations for world heritage status: Wet Tropics, Fraser Island and the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves of Australia (now Gondwana Rainforests of Australia).[12][13][14]

  1. ^ a b "Packard Awardees". IUCN. 19 February 2016.
  2. ^ a b "Award Extract - Australian Honours - Aila Keto". Australian Government - Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Award Extract - Australian Honours - Aila Keto". Australian Government - Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  4. ^ a b "Volvo awards protection of biodiversity". Volvo Environment Prize. Archived from the original on 8 January 2008. Retrieved 28 February 2008.
  5. ^ "2005 Queensland Greats recipients". Queensland Government. Archived from the original on 31 May 2017. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  6. ^ Rainforest Conservation Society of Queensland; Australian Heritage Commission (1986), Tropical rainforests of North Queensland their conservation significance : a report to the Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra Australian Govt. Pub. Service, ISBN 978-0-644-04099-0
  7. ^ Rainforest Conservation Society Inc; Keto, Aila; Scott, Keith (1992), The central eastern rainforests of Australia : World Heritage nomination, Rainforest Conservation Society, retrieved 14 October 2021
  8. ^ "2005 Queensland Greats recipients". Queensland Government. Archived from the original on 31 May 2017. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  9. ^ "Keto, Aila Inkeri (1943 - )". Bright Sparcs Biographical entry. Retrieved 29 February 2008.
  10. ^ "Keto, Aila Inkeri". WomenInAustralia.info. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  11. ^ Williams, Christine (2006). Green power: Environmentalists who have changed the face of Australia, Lothian Books, pp. 87-96.
  12. ^ a b "Aila Keto Selected as a "Queensland Great" 2005". Australian Rainforest Conservation Society. Archived from the original on 21 March 2008. Retrieved 28 February 2008.
  13. ^ Stanton, J. P. (James Peter); Borschmann, Gregg (1994), Peter Stanton interviewed by Gregg Borschmann in the Environmental awareness in Australia oral history project, pp. 126, 127
  14. ^ Tracey, J. G. (John Geoffrey); Borschmann, Gregg (1994), John Tracey interviewed by Gregg Borschmann in the People's forest oral history project, p. 64