QUEENSLAND HAS WIN WITH NEW NATIONAL FRAMEWORK

Queensland had a win late last week when Australia’s Natural Resource Ministers agreed to a new framework for regional natural resource management after June 2008.

The State’s Natural Resources and Water Minister, Craig Wallace, said Queensland community resource-management groups and Landcare groups would benefit from the long-term commitment to continued funding

They also will benefit from a new single program that will combine the major elements of the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) and National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP).

Queensland was one of the strongest state supporters of the new framework.

“The decision means continued funding for the Bush to look after the Bush,” Mr Wallace.

“It means that local community groups can continue to do the excellent work they do looking after Queensland’s precious environmental assets,” he said.

“The program will support property-level work to help landowners improve the environmental health and productive capacity of their land.

“It also will help achieve regional outcomes, such as improvements to the quality of water entering the Great Barrier Reef.”

Likely priorities for the new single program are:

·Addressing species and habitat loss;

·Reducing salinity and improving water quality;

·Dealing with pressures on coastal and peri-coastal areas; and

·Developing productive and sustainable landscapes, including on indigenous lands.

Agreement for a new framework was reached at a meeting of the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The framework agreement is the first step towards the new program.

Natural resource management programs are delivered in Queensland through community-based groups which receive funding for their programs.

Queensland now will negotiate with the Commonwealth to get the funding where it is needed most and it will push to ensure that all funding is delivered through regional groups.

Like it predecessors, NHT and NAP, the new program is a partnership between Commonwealth and Queensland.

Queensland and Western Australia are the only States where full trust has been placed in local communities to deliver on the investment in the hundreds of millions from both levels of governments.

Queensland has a long history of community involvement in natural resources management.

The Queensland Government continues to support community efforts through programs such as Landcare and Integrated Catchment management.

There are 14 natural resource management regions which tackle issues including salinity, water-quality, biodiversity and other environmental and sustainable agriculture challenges.

Mr Wallace said the Beattie Government had strongly supported the new program.

“Community-based programs under the NHT and NAP have been highly successful because they are community based,” he said.

Media inquiries: Paul Childs, Craig Wallace’s office, on 0407 131 654.