Millions put back into heritage conservation for privately owned land
Conservation on private land will get a big boost, with a multimillion-dollar commitment to expand funding for holders of native vegetation Heritage Agreements.
SA News
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Funding to support conservation efforts on private land will be partly restored under the State Government commitment to landholders with natural Heritage Agreements.
More than 1600 Heritage Agreements protect about 1.8 million hectares of wildlife habitat across SA. These agreements used to include funding for actions like fencing and weed control but that money dried up to almost nothing over the past decade.
Minister for Environment and Water David Speirs said the Government would provide $3 million over the next two financial years after the former government slashed annual funding to just $4000.
“The Marshall Liberal Government is committed to delivering practical environmental outcomes in collaboration with private landholders,” said Mr Speirs.
“Unfortunately, the former Labor Government turned its back on Heritage Agreements reducing the annual funding from $1 million to just a few thousand dollars.”
The State Government says improving native vegetation on private land protects and enhances biodiversity, improves landscape sustainability through enhanced water and soil condition as well as offering additional tourism potential.
Richard Willing, 89 of Minnawarra at Hindmarsh Tiers says it’s “really quite important that we get the Heritage Grants back on track again”.
“Although they're not very large, they are really quite useful for doing things like controlling weeds and keeping fences in order,” he said.
“Because if you fence off scrub, you almost always have trees and branches falling across the fence, so it needs repairing and there's significant cost in this and a lot of time, so the grants do help.”
Mr Willing set aside about a third of the 380 hectare sheep and beef cattle-grazing property (125ha) for conservation purposes almost 20 years ago.
Regular scientific surveys have shown the area is rich in plant and animal life, including the endangered Mount Lofty speedwell and the migratory bird Richard's pipit.
On Monday last week, a coalition of farming and conservation organisations wrote to MPs seeking “at least $8.7 million per year in new funding for farmers, pastoralists and other landholders who undertake voluntary conservation on private land in South Australia”.
That figure came from an independent review of the program released at the Private Land Conservation Conference in Adelaide at the National Wine Centre last month.
The letter was signed by Trees for Life, Livestock SA, the Conservation Council of SA, Nature Foundation SA, Landcare Association of SA, Nature Glenelg Trust, National Trust of SA, Bush Heritage, Australian Land Conservation Alliance and The Pew Charitable Trusts.
However the group welcomes today’s announcement of the $3 million commitment.
Livestock SA chief executive Andrew Curtis says “it’s great to see some money going back into the Heritage Agreements and we look forward to its re-establishment as an ongoing program”.
Landcare Association of SA chairwoman Sheree Bowman says voluntary conservation and active management by landholders is essential to protecting our wildlife and sustaining thriving rural landscapes, given nearly 60 per cent of SA is privately owned or managed.
“For years Heritage Agreements have been the flagship program for private land conservation in our state, but sadly funding has declined by 99 per cent in the past decade,” she said.