Western Australia has some of the world’s most remarkable natural landscapes, waterways and marine environments. These environments support a diverse range of flora and fauna, many of which are found no where else in the world.
Australia’s only internationally-recognised biodiversity hotspot (one of only 34 in the world) is found in the south west of the State, with more than 6,000 plant species most of which occur nowhere else. WA also contains vast and fragile Rangelands, comprising up to 90% of the State’s land mass and a third of the nation’s coastline.
Concern about Western Australia’s land, water and marine environments have been long held and recognised by the people of Western Australia and thier Government. For example this is a history of Salinity in WA. With the European arrival, WA’s land were progressively settled for agricultural interests. However, in this process late 18th and early 19th century European land management practices were employed which were to have largely unforeseen consequences. In essence, many of the old European farming practices were unsuitable for Western Australia’s landscape and thus changed the ecological (living), geological (land) and hydrological (water) balance. Subsequently many of these areas have become degraded, sometimes to the point of being totally unproductive.
Protecting, conserving and restoring Western Australia’s valuable and unique natural assets are the long term goals of natural resource management in Western Australia.
The main issues confronting Western Australia and the future of our natural assets are – salinity, water quality, erosion and soil condition, invasive species, nutrients in aquatic systems, loss of biodiversity, climate change, and sustainable development.
Our approach to NRM
The Western Australian Government has a long term commitment to managing these issues through government agencies and, in partnership with regional groups, community, Indigenous groups, industry, and local governments across the State seeks to address these threats and to manage our natural assets for future generations.
Building on this commitment a co-operative funding arrangement exists between the State and Australian Governments which provides significant investment totalling over $400 million from the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP), the extension of the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT2) and the National Landcare Program (NLP).
Much progress have been achieved to this point through on-ground activities, raising community awareness, and achieve changes in land mangement practices.
While NAP and NHT2 funding ceases in June 2008, the Western Australian and Australian Governments, in consultation with Regional Cacthment Counicls, are negoiating Natural Heritage Trust - Phase 3 (NHT3) funding arrangements. These arrangements will continue NRM funding to June 2013 – continuing and improving on the NRM success already achieved.
Guiding the current substantial investment from Government, a regional delivery approach has been adopted in Western Australia which sees greater involvement of community in determining what needs to be done.
Six regional NRM groups in WA provide the community leadership role for their regions, mobilise regional effort and ensure priority needs are addressed. They build on government investment by leveraging private investment and volunteer activities and ensuring collaboration across established networks.
Western Australia’s six NRM regions:
Each region has a peak NRM body known as Regional Catchment Council:
Each of the regional groups have developed a regional strategy and investment plan that address significant NRM issues within their regions and incorporates the environmental, social, and economic aspects of natural resource management.
These six strategies, which have been accredited by the State and Australian Governments, now cover the whole State for the first time. They identify in detail the value of the natural assets within a region, the extent and degree of threats against those assets, the resource condition targets to be achieved and their priority, and the intervention required to achieve those targets.
The strategies are implemented with the significant support of the investment from State and Australian Governments. This investment is in addition to the large sums the WA Government already spends on the environment through its own agencies. |
