Landcare: Where to now ?

1. Landcare: Where to now? Professor Allan Curtis

2. Overview • Confront the revisionists • Celebrate success • Get the partnership right • Sustain the groups • Identify new opportunities

3. Confront the revisionists Done that, lets move on Didn’t work, didn’t fix the problems Not strategic (vegemite approach) CMAs can engage landholders directly

4. Celebrate success • Mobilised a large cross section of rural population • Facilitated dialogue, learning, planning and action • High level of success across all outcome measures

5. Celebrate success A small investment in landcare through NLP: A catalyst for change in agricultural inputs A cost effective delivery mechanism for large programs Landcare has demonstrated that it should be part of the mix of policy options employed

6. What might be the future for Landcare? • Place for learning about sustainability, including how to adapt to drought/ climate change • Way to effectively engage the next generation of land managers in learning about NRM • A cost effective way of accomplishing change at the district scale

7. Getting regional NRM partnership right • Regional bodies do the regional planning, allocate priorities, ensure accountability • Landcare engage landholders in learning, planning and action at district scale

8. Realistic expectations of the partnership • Now have a more sophisticated arsenal • CMA Boards and staff have difficult tasks • Acknowledge the benefits of regional model • Emphasise value of networks • Focus on sustaining groups

9. Sustaining groups • Resources needed to support volunteer organisations • Leadership • Internal organisation • Positive group culture

10. Changing social context: a Landcare opportunity Era of rapid change in almost all regions • Large turnover in property ownership • Influx of new owners and non-farmers • Many absentee owners • Uncertainty around adaptation to climate change • Suburbanisation of many landscapes

11. Property turnover: Corangamite catchment • State government property sales records 1995-2005 • 25% of properties have been sold in the last decade • 50% will change hands (2006-2016) • 93% had lived outside the district where their property is located prior to purchasing their property Percent of properties being sold each year in the Corangamite catchment

12. Where are they coming from?

13. Where are they coming from?

14. Stable social structure?

15. Family succession will occur?

16. Occupation, income and profitability

17. Most landholders are farmers? • Wimmera – 80% • Corangamite – 53% • Ovens – 58% • Goulburn-Broken – 54% • Also, in some areas non-farmers hold most of the land: land which is often critical to NRM.

18. Farm income crucial to viability?

19. Social & farming differences

20. Property turnover changes the landscape • Viability of networks and local organisations • Drought policy when lose experience • Industry extension/ training implications • CMA and landcare plans: Who’se values drive the plan • Local government • Injection of new people, ideas and resources

21. Conclusion • Landcare has been a success • Landcare an important part of policy mix for effective regional NRM • Focus on articulating roles and responsibilities • Need to sustain groups • Help regions address changing social realities