SESSION
Opening plenary session
08:30 Opening session
MC Serusha Govender, WCSJ 2025 Local Organising Committee Member, South African Freelance Journalist
08:35 Safety briefing and housekeeping
08:40 Welcome remarks
Host: Dr Thulani Dlamini, Chief Executive Officer, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
Host: Mandi Smallhorne, President of the South African Science Journalists Association (SASJA)
09:15 Opening address
Conference Patron: Prof Blade Nzimande, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation – South Africa
09:45 Keynote address
Advocate Cormac Cullinan: winner of the 2025 Shackleton Prize for the Protection of the Polar Regions
Title: Planet, People and Law: deploying the power of law to reshape our relationship with our world
Environmental attorney Cormac Cullinan, will speak about changing perspectives on our place and role on the planet, as science journalists and humans.
Cormac CullinanKEYNOTE SPEAKER
Environmental attorney
Winner of the Royal Geographical Society’s 2025 Shackleton Prize for the Protection of the Polar Regions
South Africa
Cormac Cullinan, a practising environmental attorney from Cape Town, South Africa, has provided counsel to governments and contributed to the creation of environmental treaties, laws, and policies in more than 30 nations. His influential book, Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice (2002), contributed to the global Rights of Nature movement. Cullinan was instrumental in drafting the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth and is actively involved in the Antarctic Rights and Table Mountain Rights initiatives. This founding member and executive committee member of the Global Alliance for Rights of Nature (GARN) is also involved in its African Hub. In 2025, he received the Shackleton Prize for the Protection of the Polar Regions from the Royal Geographical Society. He was previously honoured with the Ecologic awards for lifetime achievement in 2018 and the Eco-Leadership award in 2021. In 2012, he was recognised with the Nick Steele award as South African Environmentalist of the Year.