A call to heal Australia’s lands, seas and waterways

We are people who work to improve and restore the health of Australia’s environment and have come together in response to the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists’ Blueprint to Repair Australia’s Landscapes. We agree that the time is now for positive action to strengthen and protect our natural resources, our environment and our culture.

We all know Australia is facing growing challenges from our changing climate and declining health of our lands, seas and waters. Our food production systems, water, air quality, economic prosperity, health, wellbeing and cultural identity are at serious risk.

Significant work is already happening. The skills and knowledge in regional, Indigenous and farming communities across Australia show that so much more can be done. Indigenous Rangers, farmers, natural resource managers and volunteers provide an unrecognised essential service. They are our environment and climate change frontline.

The Blueprint to Repair Australia’s Landscapes reaffirms that –

• We need to restore Country – and we need to do it now

Importantly, the report demonstrates that –

• We know how. The work is already underway.

• Australia can afford this now (we can’t afford not to act).

To achieve this, we agree that Australia should:

1. Establish a substantive national financing mechanism to heal Australia’s lands, seas and waterways, providing permanence and continuity and allowing us to substantially scale up and strengthen our achievements to date;
2. Recognise that the work done in our regions and their communities to care for Country and heal our land and waterscapes is an essential service and embed that recognition across sectors and the whole of government;
3. Invest to establish a national Indigenous environmental voice that empowers place-based Indigenous-led decision making; and
4. Support Australia’s existing regional natural resource management framework as the most effective mechanism and scale to plan, integrate and implement action to heal Australia’s lands, seas and waterways.

Much of what we need already exists: our regional natural resource management bodies and Indigenous land sea and water management groups are working with their local community networks with a place-based approach. The capability is already in place to support devolved decision-making, planning and action across the country.

Recognising the immense good will and efforts already underway across the country, we invite others to support this call.

As the Blueprint shows, Australia can afford to do what is needed to restore our lands, seas and waterways, creating a resilient, prosperous future for generations to come.

Teagan Shields – Arabana Woman and Research Fellow, Curtin University

Rachel Morgain – Climate Adaptation and Disaster Resilience Lead, NRM Regions Australia

Barry Hunter – Djabugay man, CEO NAILSMA, Chair Terrain NRM

Stephen van Leeuwin – Boojarah Wardandi Noongar man, BHP/Curtin Indigenous Professor in Biodiversity & Environmental Science

Mike Grundy – Member, Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists

Peter Voller – Director, NRM Regions Australia, Chair Cradle Coast NRM

Kate Andrews – CEO, NRM Regions Australia