A sustainable resourcing strategy for landcare

Landcare is a community-based natural resource management (NRM) program of global significance. The strength of Landcare lies in its local focus and character and the fact that community groups and networks decide their own visions and set goals for environmental action in their districts and regions. Landcare is an effective mechanism for facilitating community participation in NRM, community partnerships and cost sharing between government and private landholders. The main restraint on achieving conservation goals, however, is the lack of resources available for landcare actions. Without further resources, Landcare cannot commit to the extent needed to achieve sustainable management of the Australian environment. This feasibility problem faced by most Landcare groups reflects a far larger challenge of environmental funding. Future pressure on budgets means that it is unlikely that Australian governments will commit to substantively increased conservation funding. There is a real possibility that environmental funding by governments will continue to decrease. To meet this challenge, there is a need for innovation in conservation resourcing as the demand for investment in conservation activities dwarves the capacity of both government and private landholders. Landcare groups will need to find even more creative ways to address this resourcing gap.