National Reserve System

The Australian Government has boosted funding for the National Reserve System with $180 million over five years as part of Caring for our Country. The National Reserve System will help to conserve Australia's distinctive landscapes, plants and animals through a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of reserves across Australia.

Targets under this priority

• Increasing the National Reserve System
• Increasing Indigenous Protected Areas

Biodiversity and natural icons

The Australian Government has acknowledged the need to take action to protect our biodiversity and natural icons. Priorities for government funding will include protecting World Heritage Areas, tackling weeds and pest animals that threaten biodiversity, and improving outcomes for nationally threatened species and communities.

Targets under this priority

• Increasing native habitat
• Environmental Stewardship Program
• Reducing the impact of vertebrate pest animals
• Reducing the impact of weeds
• Managing World Heritage Areas

Coastal environments and critical aquatic habitats

Our coastal environments and critical aquatic habitats face a range of threats. The Australian Government will deliver outcomes for these important areas - including delivering the Great Barrier Reef Rescue package, protecting and rehabilitating areas for critically endangered and endangered species and migratory shorebirds, improving the quality of water discharged into coastal environments, and protecting Ramsar wetlands.

Targets under this priority

• Protecting the Reef
• Protecting Ramsar wetlands
• Protecting critical aquatic ecosystems
• Improving coastal hotspots
• Increasing coastal community engagement

Sustainable practices

The choice of management practices by farmers and fishers impacts the condition of Australia's natural resources and the ability of ecosystems to provide services, including the production of food and fibre. The Australian Government is committed to build on the success of the National Landcare Program and the hard work of farmers and fishers in managing the environment by encouraging the adoption of sustainable practices to deliver benefits for the whole community.

Targets under this priority

• Sustainable practices
  • Improving management practices
  • Landscape scale conservation
  • Knowledge, skills and engagement

Natural resource management in northern and remote Australia

The Australian Government aims to secure better environmental and natural resource outcomes in northern and remote Australia, particularly for Indigenous groups. Proposals for activities in northern and remote Australia must deliver against targets in another Caring for our Country national priority area.

The environmental and sustainable farming challenges faced by northern and remote Australia require a tailored approach to sustainable natural resource use and environmental protection.

This is due to the geographic scale, cost structures and unique environmental assets and cultural values of this area. The small and dispersed population and social, economic and environmental challenges require different approaches to investment from those in the more developed areas of the country. Northern and remote Australia contains some of our most intact high conservation value landscapes and valuable productive resources.

This area will be a focus for Australian Government environmental and natural resource management effort in coming years.

Caring for our Country is particularly seeking to invest in opportunities relevant to Indigenous peoples, such as the expansion of Indigenous Protected Areas as part of the National Reserve System in areas that are under-represented, employment of Indigenous rangers to deliver environmental outcomes, and the protection of coastal areas and threatened ecological communities.

Work funded to manage World Heritage Areas, protect Ramsar wetlands, improve land management practices and the knowledge and skill of land managers will also contribute to the delivery of northern and remote outcomes.

The Australian Government expects that proponents will make use of research undertaken by organisations such as the Tropical Savannas Cooperative Research Centre, Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge (TRaCK), the Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility, and from the Australian Government's Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce in developing their proposals.

Alliances between regions and organisations that enhance cross-border and cross-regional collaboration are crucial in northern and remote Australia for delivering the environment and resource management objectives of the Australian Government. Caring for our Country encourages cross-regional projects that can meet multiple targets and that genuinely engage Indigenous people.

Community skills, knowledge and engagement

Caring for our Country recognises the importance of supporting the community, such as 'friends of' groups, Indigenous communities, Landcare and Coastcare groups that play a vital role in managing and protecting our environment and productive land base. The Australian Government has acknowledged the unique knowledge and skills that Indigenous people have to support conservation outcomes. Priorities for government investment will support the recruitment and retention of volunteers, the reinvigoration and use of traditional ecological knowledge and the implementation of land and sea country management plans by Indigenous communities to underpin biodiversity conservation outcomes.

Targets under this priority

• Increasing participation in natural resource management
• Indigenous participation