Caring for our Country Business Plan 2010-11
Priorities for investment: Biodiversity and natural icons
Environmental Stewardship Program
Key information for this target
Environmental Stewardship Program
The objective of the Caring for our Country - Environmental Stewardship Program is to maintain and improve the quality and extent of targeted high public value environmental assets on private land. Environmental assets are targeted from the list of threatened ecological communities under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). This is outlined in the Environmental Stewardship Strategic Framework.
The program uses competitive tenders and other market-based approaches to engage private land managers in financial contracts for up to 15 years to manage these assets. Contracts with land managers provide enduring improvements to land management practices to protect and enhance environmental assets.
The program aims to:
- improve the long-term protection of nationally threatened species and ecological communities
- improve habitat condition across the landscape
- improve the condition and function of ecological communities
- deliver enduring changes in land managers' attitudes and behaviours towards environmental protection and sustainable land management practices.
Target
To secure at least 30 000 hectares of nationally threatened ecological communities through the Environmental Stewardship Program by June 2011.
Investment Scope: South Australian Environmental Stewardship Project
The Australian Government is seeking expressions of interest from organisations or consortia interested in being the delivery agent for a single Environmental Stewardship project targeting the nationally threatened ecological communities outlined below in the following South Australian natural resource management (NRM) regions - Adelaide and Mount Lofty, Northern and Yorke, and South Australia Murray-Darling:
- peppermint box (Eucalyptus odorata) grassy woodland of South Australia
- iron-grass natural temperate grassland of South Australia
- swamps of the Fleurieu Peninsula.
These communities are nationally threatened. Each is under-represented in National Parks and reserve systems, occurs predominately on private land, and has primary threats which can be significantly reduced through private land manager actions.
Because of their geographic clustering within south-eastern South Australia, these communities will be targeted under a single Environmental Stewardship project.
The South Australian Environmental Stewardship project will begin in 2010. Private land managers will be able to tender for projects from spring 2010. The project will be completed by June 2011.
A delivery agent for this project will be sought through a competitive procurement process. Expressions of interest are invited from organisations or consortia with demonstrable organisational capacity and relevant experience in delivering complex conservation programs over large geographic areas within tight timeframes to private land managers using market-based approaches. To apply, you must complete the expression of interest documents on AusTender. Expressions of interest have now closed.
As a result, we are not seeking any additional proposals under this business plan that target the conservation of this group of nationally threatened ecological communities in these NRM regions using tenders or other market-based approaches.
Current Environmental Stewardship Projects
In 2010-11 the Australian Government will build on the work already undertaken and will negotiate Environmental Stewardship Program outcomes and delivery with existing proponents and service providers. There is no call for new participants for the following projects at this time.
Box Gum Grassy Woodlands Project
The Environmental Stewardship Program is targeting the critically endangered box gum grassy woodlands ecological community. To date, private land managers have participated through tenders completed in the Murrumbidgee, Lachlan, Central West, Namoi and Border Rivers-Gwydir NRM regions of NSW and the South East Queensland, Condamine, and Border Rivers Maranoa-Balonne NRM regions of Queensland.
Subject to ongoing demand into 2010-11, further tenders may be available to private land managers through existing service providers in some regions.
Additional proposals that predominantly target the conservation of box gum grassy woodlands in these regions using tenders or other market-based approaches will not be eligible for funding.
New South Wales Multiple Ecological Communities Project
In 2010-11 we are implementing an expanded Environmental Stewardship project in the Central West, Namoi, and Border Rivers-Gwydir NRM regions of NSW to target the following nationally threatened ecological communities:
- white box, yellow box and Blakely's red gum grassy woodland and derived grasslands ecological community
- natural grasslands on basalt and fine-textured alluvial plains of northern NSW and southern Queensland
- weeping Myall woodlands.
Because of their geographic clustering within northern NSW these communities will be targeted under a single NSW Multiple Ecological Communities Environmental Stewardship project through an existing service provider.
Additional proposals that predominantly target the conservation of this group of nationally threatened ecological communities in these NRM regions using tenders or other market-based approaches will not be eligible for funding.
Further information
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