Supporting Conservation Landholders
Lessons learnt from the four year private land conservation program on the Mid Coast
Capacity building - LEP23 - 026
The issue
Four years ago, private land conservation (PLC) on the Mid Coast was in a precarious state – there was a significant gap in the oversight and management of properties holding PLC agreements and without dedicated funding, the Land For Wildlife (LFW) program was struggling to maintain meaningful delivery. With 70% of the land in the region privately owned, this critical pathway for conservation was struggling to provide existing and new landholders with worthwhile engagement and support. Then Jess Leck, the Regional Landcare Coordinator at the time had a brainwave.
The solution
A strategic partnership was formed between MidCoast 2 Tops Landcare (MC2T), the Biodiversity Conservation Trust and MidCoast Council. This combined funding streams to broaden accessibility to the program and employ a dedicated PLC Officer, Isabelle Strachan.
Isabelle developed a popular program of informative workshops/field days. She was a reliable point of contact, requests for site visits were covered and regular articles about events/topics of interest were shared in our newsletter.
The new program was designed to be inclusive for all conservation focused landholders. It nurtured a strong community, benefiting from peer to peer learning opportunities and practical demonstrations.
The impact
Four years on, the program has now wrapped up - 54 events were delivered with 1,500 attendees, LFW properties increased from 70 to 180 and the PLC network of agreements expanded from 2,500ha to 3,500ha within the Mid Coast.
A final gathering held on Biripi country with engaging presentations and discussions with partners and landholders, focussed on a range of topics including barriers to PLC, future options to explore.
This community of practice demonstrates the significance in connecting landholders across the landscape. Providing peer to peer learning opportunities, shared resources and provision of consistent on-ground support benefits landholders, agencies and nature.
Learnings
- Social barriers are just as significant as financial ones in preventing landholder participation.
- Facilitating connection and networking opportunities amongst existing and new landholders greatly helped to strengthen the interest in the program.
- Landholders are keen to more towards two way conversations and away from one-way education models
- Interest exists amongst PLC landholders in landscape-scale restoration through connectivity projects