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Specialising in natural resource and social planning; community consultation and facilitation; values mapping and consensus building, mediation and conflict resolution; policy development; program and organisational diagnosis and development.
Grassy White Box Woodlands |
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project outline |
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Project Update: Winter 1999The project is underwayGrassy White Box Woodlands are found in small scattered patches along the lower western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, from southern to northern NSW, and in a small number of locations in north-eastern Victoria and southern Queensland. The woodland system, with its White Box trees, native grasses and native wildflowers, is one of the most threatened plant communities in south-eastern Australia.The Taking Action Now! project is designed to build on previous research, working with landholders and public land managers, to identify remnant patches, to assess their conservation value, and through the provision of financial incentives, to assist in managing them to conserve that conservation value. Having been approved under the Commonwealth's Natural Heritage Trust in August last year, the Taking Action Now! project received its first funding in early February. The project team has agreed a workplan for the first year's work, a Reference Group has been set up and three Rural Liaison Officers have just been appointed. It is now time for us to begin work out there on the ground.
Each will work in his or her own region, seeking out other landholders and managers with a good patch of Grassy White Box Woodland (GWB) on their property. They will be in touch with scientists and Government agency staff able to provide technical advice on conservation management of these remnant patches, and will also provide a pathway from landholders back to the scientific community. The RLOs also have a sound working knowledge of the various incentive programs available to assist landholders in fencing out areas and changing management of them and will be able to put interested participants in touch with the Department of Land and Water Conservation, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Greening Australia, and others who can provide this assistance. Within the Taking Action Now! project, there will also be a small amount of incentive funding to assist landholders with fencing and other conservation activities. The RLOs will work with interested landholders and scientists with expertise in the ecology of Grassy White Box Woodlands, to have areas assessed for their conservation value. These assessments, and the level of protection landholders are seeking for their remnants will provide a basis for determining the level of financial assistance this project can give to those who are interested in taking conservation action for the remnants.
Phil Spark Geoff Tonkin & Mollie Whitehorn Karen Walker
Heather Pearce
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