Funding options

	Community Action Grants	Open Call Grants	Environmental Stewardship
Purpose	Sustainable farming, protecting and/or enhancing the natural environment	Environmental protection and sustainable farming practices work, focusing on the national priority areas.	To protect, rehabilitate and improve particular ecological communities on privately managed land
Who can apply?	Local community groups that are successfully delivering projects to support sustainable farming and/or protect and enhance the natural environment and/or emerging Indigenous groups	Eligibility requirements are outlined in the Caring for our Country business plan	Land managers including farmers, Indigenous communities, and other managers of private freehold and leasehold land who can provide agreed management activities
Time frame	2012-13 Community Action Grants projects must commence and be completed between 1 July 2012 and 30 June 2013	Projects funded under the 2012-13 business plan must commence and be completed between 1 July 2012 and 30 June 2013	Up to 15 years
Funding available 2012-13	$5000 to $20 000 (GST exclusive)	$20 000 to $500 000 (GST exclusive)* *Except for land acquisition proposals under the National Reserve System  where land value is considered	$5000 to $20 000 - determined by auction and amount of land

Environmental Recovery from Disasters

The Government may assist in the recovery of the natural environment from the sudden and extreme effects of natural disasters where it aligns with Caring for our Country targets and outcomes and where it will achieve a positive outcome for the environment and natural resources.

Significant requests for assistance are generally coordinated through the relevant state or territory government and will be considered on a case-by-case basis and negotiated separately. Applications for individual projects that address Caring for our Country targets and at the same time assist in environmental recovery following a natural disaster will be considered through the Open Call or Community Action Grants investment processes.

• Announcement of $8 million package – 23 March 2011

Previous funding

Since 2008, Caring for our Country has also funded:

• Working on Country 
• Regional natural resource management (NRM) organisations – base level funding
  Regional base level funding provides secure funding to regional natural resource management (NRM) organisations, for achieving the Caring for our Country 2008-2013 outcomes. The funding was available to the 56 regional NRM organisations for multi-year projects, that must be completed by 30 June 2013.
• Reef rescue