Review of Caring for Our Country – Your chance to have a say about investment in the Condamine catchment

The review of the Caring for our Country initiative has commenced. The review will look at the effectiveness of the program, achievements to date and will explore options for natural resource management delivery in the future.

What is Caring for Our Country?

Caring for our Country is an ongoing Australian Government initiative that seeks to achieve an environment that is healthy, better protected, well-managed, resilient, and provides essential ecosystem services in a changing climate. The initiative began on 1 July 2008.

In its first five years Caring for our Country focused on six national priority areas:

Australia’s National Reserve System
Biodiversity and natural icons
Coastal environments and critical aquatic habitats
Sustainable farm practices
Community skills, knowledge and engagement
Natural resource management in northern and remote Australia

For each national priority area the Australian Government describes a long-term (20-year) projection of results it expects to achieve and shorter term (five-year) outcomes.

Condamine Alliance has received base level funding from the Caring for our Country initiative to focus on the abovementioned national priorities. For specific catchment priorities, funding have been through a competitive Open Grant process through which we have has some success in securing additional funds to meet the targets in the community based catchment NRM Plan.

Purpose of the review

In reviewing the Caring for our Country initiative, the Australian Government will:

Assess progress towards meeting the Caring for our Country five-year outcomes
Assess the efficiency and effectiveness of Caring for our Country in delivering its outcomes and targets
Assess the appropriateness of Caring for our Country as an Australian Government natural
Resource management initiative
Examine future policy options for effective and efficient Australian Government natural resource management delivery

Why your view is important

An important part of the review will be consulting with Australia’s natural resource management stakeholders. The views and experiences of our partners and stakeholders are an essential part of informing the review and will help identify program improvements that are practical and focused.

Under previous Australian Government natural resource management programs, the government invested heavily in regional natural resource management investment strategies aligned with accredited regional plans. Caring for our Country shifted the focus by placing measurable strategic outcomes at a national scale in the context of long term 20 year projections and to improve community participation in natural resource management. Recently, issues have been raised about the balance of Caring for our Country investments across national, regional and local priorities and the adverse impact this has had on the community’s capacity to work on relevant and appropriate projects at a local or regional level.

Your opinion on the balance of across national, regional and local priorities would be valuable.

How to make a submission

Read the discussion paper
You may also find it useful to read Caring for our Country Outcomes and the 2010-11 Caring for our Country Business Plan before preparing your submission. These are available on the www.nrm.gov.au website
Make a submission – submissions close 5pm AEST 20 May 2011