The Alinytjara Wilurara Landscape Board has backed the national call for urgent recognition and greater funding of the critical work being done to restore the health of Australia's landscapes as the Global Nature Positive Summit proceeds in Sydney this week.
The national call to Heal Australia's Land, Seas and Waterways was launched last week by a group of First Nations and Natural Resource Management leaders, working with the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. It highlights the critical role of Indigenous Rangers, farmers, natural resource managers and volunteers in delivering the work required to restore Country, and that a significant escalation in funding is needed.
AWLB general manager Kim Krebs said both traditional land management and sustainable food and fibre production is at risk if we continue to neglect the required investment and action needed to have nature positive outcomes.
"The Global Nature Positive Summit is a tremendous opportunity to turn good intentions into actions, and more importantly, meaningful funding for the work that is so urgently required on Country," she said.
AWLB chair Brenz Saunders said there is growing recognition that Australia is facing increasing challenges from extreme events and the declining health and sustainable productivity of our lands, seas and waters.
"Anangu have known for thousands of years that the health of Country is fundamental to the health and flourishing of people, communities and culture, something that is as relevant today as it ever was," Mr Saunders said.
"Across the Alinytjara Wilurara region we know that our efforts to reduce feral predators and invasive buffel grass are improving the health and productivity of our Country, but we could be doing so much more with funding that is commensurate with the urgency and magnitude of the task."
Mr Saunders said the Alinytjara Wilurara Landscape Board fully supported the Statement in its call to: recognise that the work done in this region and community to care for Country and heal our land and waterscapes is an essential service; support Australia's existing regional natural resource management framework as the most effective mechanism to plan, implement and scale nature repair; Invest to establish a national Indigenous environmental voice that empowers place-based Indigenous-led decision making; and establish a national financing mechanism to fund the scaling and strengthening of achievements to date.
The call is in response to a major report by the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists which maps out a thirty-year investment program that will reverse Australia's landscape decline.
NRM Regions Australia chief executive Dr Kate Andrews, one of the joint statement's co-authors, said: "The Wentworth Group's Blueprint reaffirms that we not only need to restore Country, we need to do it now. Our economic prosperity and wellbeing are at serious risk from the declining health of our land, seas and waters."
"The repair work is already underway so we absolutely know how to do it, and we know Australia can afford it. We cannot afford to do nothing."
