Biodiversity Fund Case Study - Coorong and Tatiara districts, South Australia

Great example of a biodiversity project that has been embraced and integrated into a community.
The Coorong and Tatiara districts of South Australia have joined together for a five year project to help land managers protect and manage native habitats. There are 1,300 separate projects on the agenda for the next five years - with the protection of native vegetation being a high priority.
There are three main focuses; restoring native habitats, acting locally to build community skills and knowledge and creating opportunities for self sustaining maintenance.
This case study is unusual because the local council of both communities have taken on this project, which is rare. Usually projects this size are managed at the state level. There are no government offices in the area, but local councils provide specialist services to landholders (e.g. trained biologist and soil scientists).

"The district councils will work in partnership with two local NRM Boards and relevant state government departments. Graham sees this as a two-way collaboration. "We're all working towards the same outcomes, so we can support one another's efforts, like producing fact sheets for agricultural shows or other NRM work."

The education and skills acquired by whole communities shows an actual change in the system that adopts a culture of a self-sustaining community that is able to restore problem areas, "Graham (Local Action Plan Project Officer at Coorong District Council) hopes the projects will deliver a sense of ownership in these restored areas and sustainable habitats on a large scale."