Caring for our Country business plan 2009-10
In its initial five years, Caring for our Country provides over $2 billion in funding for natural resource management.
The Australian Government has called for investment proposals for projects that will meet the targets outlined in the Caring for our Country business plan 2009-10. The call for proposals is now closed.
What funding is available under Caring for our Country?
Caring for our Country is an Australian Government initiative that seeks to achieve an environment that is healthy, better protected, well managed and resilient, and provides essential ecosystem services in a changing climate.
Caring for our Country invites non-government organisations, landcare groups and other community groups, governments, industry and business to participate in a new approach to safeguarding Australia's natural resources and maintaining our sustainable farming systems.
Applicants are encouraged to form partnerships and collaborate in building lasting landscape-scale resilience in a changing climate.
Each year, a Caring for our Country business plan will be released seeking investment proposals for projects that address the national priority areas. The business plan provides a consolidated call for proposals, rather than a number of overlapping calls for grants throughout the year.
Each business plan will identify the priority targets for that financial year and will encourage proponents to submit proposals that will meet those targets. The targets are designed as stepping stones to achieve five-year outcomes across national priority areas.
The Caring for our Country business plan 2009-10 investment proposal round is now closed.
What are the national priority areas, outcomes and targets?
Caring for our Country is focused on achieving strategic results in six national priorities:
- the National Reserve System
- biodiversity and natural icons
- coastal environments and critical aquatic habitats
- sustainable farm practices
- natural resource management in northern and remote Australia, and
- community skills, knowledge and engagement.
There are a number of outcomes for each national priority and targets have been identified for each outcome.
Investment proposals will be invited for projects that achieve or contribute to achieving particular targets and, in turn, deliver outcomes to address the national priorities.
Figure 1: Caring for our Country framework
For information about Caring for our Country outcomes, see:
For details of the Caring for our Country targets for 2009-10, see the information sheets:
Larger maps and other supporting data, including spreadsheets and reports, are available with each target information sheet.
Who can apply?
You must be a legal entity or an incorporated body to submit an investment proposal. If you are not a legal entity or an incorporated body, you will need to form a partnership with an organisation that is. Your partner organisation can then submit a proposal on your behalf.
What size can projects be?
The Australian Government is seeking investment proposals for landscape-scale projects that achieve one or more targets in specific geographic locations or key assets.
Projects can be large, medium or small:
- large-scale projects in the order of $20 million over four years
- medium-scale projects of up to $3 million per annum (a value of $2-3 million would be expected for most medium-scale projects)
- small-scale projects of between $20,000 and $100,000 per annum.
Community groups and networks seeking smaller amounts of funding are encouraged to contact their regional natural resource management organisation to discuss local grants options or to identify other groups they could form a partnership with to submit a proposal.
For a map of the concepts for large projects, outlined from page 25 of the Caring for our Country business plan 2009-10, see:
Partnerships and collaboration
Because of the geographic areas they are expected to cover and the nature of the issues they are expected to address, large and medium-scale projects will probably be undertaken most effectively through a partnership arrangement between a number of stakeholders.
We encourage regional natural resource management organisations, community organisations, non-government organisations, governments, land managers, industries and Indigenous organisations to actively seek partnership arrangements for large and medium-scale projects.
Proponents for small-scale projects can either seek a partnership with a larger project or apply directly through the business plan.
How many years can the project take?
The targets include a variety of timeframes (one, two, three or four years), depending on the nature of the target. Investment proposals would be expected to deliver portions of targets in a variety of timeframes but projects would be expected to run for a minimum of one year and a maximum of four years (to finish by 2013).
Other sources of funding
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