State Heritage Convention

Ms Lesley Thomas
Manager, Covenanting
National Trust of Australia (WA)
"New tools for old: Mechanisms for protection of natural heritage value on private land in WA"

Australia is an amazing and wonderful place. It contains such a rich variety of plants, animals and microorganisms that it is considered one of the 11 countries in the world that are 'mega diverse'. Although this term sounds like playground slang, it is accepted by governments around the world as an accurate description of our Australian environment. Within Australia, south-western WA stands out and is counted among the 25 global biodiversity hot spots.

Yet our unique ecosystems are under increasing pressure. It is estimated that across Australia, approximately 70% of our forests and woodlands have been cleared or severely modified. In WA's Wheatbelt, more than 95% of the native vegetation has been cleared. Increasing dryland salinity, salinisation of waterways, soil acidification and the slow choking of our rivers and waterways have become all too common in the wake of over-clearing and intensive land uses. Much of what remains, particularly in the Wheatbelt, is fragmented into small, isolated remnants.

The value of native vegetation is increasingly recognized in areas ranging from the woodlands of the Wheatbelt, to the forests of the southwest, to the fringes of the urban areas around Perth and regional centres. A large proportion of remaining native vegetation and ecosystems is on private land. Many owners have a deep sense of commitment to caring for their bushland and are committed to its protection.

Until the last decade, owners who wanted to protect conservation values on their properties were largely reliant on their own resources and ingenuity. There were few organizations able to assist owners, and owners faced considerable costs and disincentives in trying to conserve their land. The paper on Philanthropy by Binning and Young in 1999 identified many of the costs and disincentives and identified means of addressing many of them. Some of their recommendations have begun to be implemented with changes to Federal taxation legislation and more is needed. This includes extension of the provisions in the Tax Act for landcare deductions and rebates to owners of land formally dedicated to conservation. The paper presented by Keith Bradby at this conference covers some of these aspects in detail in a Western Australian context, with the work by Carl Binning and his colleagues providing a federal perspective.

There are now a range of initiatives, both government and non-government, that can provide owners with a 'toolbox' of mechanisms to achieve private land conservation. I'd like to outline some of the programs and initiatives now, though recognizing that this is not a comprehensive listing, followed by mention of a few examples of conservation landholders, individuals or organizations. Finally, I will finish with a few thoughts on where we might be heading.

Programs and Initiatives
Some organizations, such as the Department of Conservation and Land Management, did have the ability to assist owners through such mechanisms as Management Agreements under section 16 of the CALM Act as early as the mid-eighties. CALM also has the ability to take conservation covenants.

The Soil and Land Conservation Council, through the Soil and Land Conservation Act, have also had the ability to register covenants over land to protect the land from degradation through clearing or grazing. This ability was put to good use in the late 1980s with the launch of the Remnant Vegetation Protection Scheme, which provided fencing grants to landowners in return for a covenant over the land. The covenants were for a fixed term, usually 30 years. This program, more than any other, marked a change in thinking in Western Australia about private land conservation. The RVPS scheme ran until last year and has resulted in approximately 75,400 ha being protected under SLCC covenants. The State Government is developing a more broadly based bushland protection and management program that, it is hoped, will be up and running before too long.

A second important step was the establishment by CALM of the Land for Wildlife program in 1997. This program differed from management agreements and covenants in that the focus was on appropriate management of the land, rather than on legally-binding protection mechanisms. The program is based on the original Land for Wildlife program run in Victoria. Land for Wildlife programs are now run in most states in Australia and are extremely popular with landholders. Here in Western Australia, the program is currently, as of 6th June 2001, working with 838 landholders who have registered to protect their land. Of this number 624 have been visited to date, protecting 91,310 ha on properties covering in total 492,285 ha.

The late 1990s saw an expansion of programs and initiatives to encourage and support private land conservation. The National Trust launched its Conservation Covenanting Program in April 1999 with the support of the Lotteries Commission and the Natural Heritage Trust. The CALM covenanting program came into being soon after. Both programs are based on the same model developed by Trust for Nature in Victoria. They offer WA landowners a choice of government and non-government schemes. Both programs are proving very successful with landowners.

The National Trust is currently working with over 80 landholders on covenants that will protect 120,000 ha on 145 properties. The CALM covenanting program, which has only had staff more recently than the Trust program, is currently working with 25 landholders on 4935 ha.

The World-Wide Fund for Nature established their Woodland Watch Program in 2000. This program focuses on some of the significant Wheatbelt woodland communities and provides active encouragement for landowners to protect and manage their bushland appropriately.

There are also a range of other programs that operate at local and regional levels, such as the Blackwood Biodiversity Program and a host of local plans developed by communities, catchment groups and landcare groups to protect and manage their bushland, often in partnership with one of the organizations mentioned here. There are also groups that have a specific conservation focus, such as the Mallefowl Preservation Group, who have a strategic focus that incorporates private land conservation to meet their objectives.

The role of local government in private land conservation is an important one, as the actions and policies of local governments can act to either support private land conservation, or to hinder it. In Western Australia, several local governments are acting to promote and facilitate conservation on private land. These include conservation zoning, as done by the Shire of Serpentine-Jarrhadale, or rate relief. Two Shires have initiated studies to explore what they can do to facilitate conservation on private land within their boundaries. These are the Shire of Augusta-Margaret Rive and the Shire of Busselton. This research is invaluable as it will enable those shires to tailor their activities specifically for the local situation.

Several Shires are including consideration of conservation covenants in their decision-making, as is the Ministry for Planning, which is examining the role of conservation covenants in relation to planning and development application approvals.

Within the Metropolitan Area, the Bush Forever policy has identified a number of properties of high conservation value. As well as an acquisition program, the Bush Forever Policy also promotes the use of conservation covenants to allow the properties to remain in private hands, whilst ensuring their protection and environmental management..

As well as these specific programs to assist and support private land conservation activities, there are a number of other initiatives that should be mentioned, particularly in terms of sales to conservation owners.

A new initiative to be announced by the Federal Minister for the Environment and Heritage, the Honourable Robert Hill, later this week is the Bush Bank. This is a revolving fund for the purchase, covenanting and on-sale of bushland to appropriate conservation owners. A consortium including the WA Landcare Trust, the World-wide Fund for Nature, CALM and the National Trust has established the Bush Bank. It will be operated by the National Trust.

The WWF and the Soil and Land Conservation Council have also been active in setting up the Bush Brokers program, in association with the Real Estate Institute of WA. This program will assist owners of conservation land to find like-minded purchasers.

Landholders
Nothing of these programs would any difference if there were not people prepared to set their land aside for conservation. Western Australia is fortunate that there is a thriving private land conservation community, and that the numbers are growing. As well as all of the landholders registered with Land for Wildlife and who have a conservation covenant on their property, there are a number of groups and families deserving of special mention.

The property called Lowlands, which has been in the same family since the 1850's is a property of 1600ha on the Swan Coastal Plain south of Perth. Over 1200ha are retained as bushland and the property has three entries on the Register of the National Estate for natural or cultural heritage values. The Richardson family have worked tirelessly to protect and manage the values of their property.

The Australian Wildlife Conservancy is a major conservation landholder in Western Australia with approximately 450,000 ha of freehold and leasehold land being set aside for conservation in perpetuity. The properties include two freehold sanctuaries in the Darling Range, Paruna and Karakamia, as well as leasehold land in the Gascoyne-Murchison and the Kimberley. The Conservancy's focus is currently on re-introduction of mammals in the critical weight range.

The Australian Bush Heritage Fund is a significant conservation owner with 13 conservation reserves dedicated in perpetuity across the Country, including a 400 ha reserve at Kojonup, which is covenanted with the National Trust. The ABHF seeks local input and conservation partners for its reserve system, and there is an active management committee of including local people and ecologists.

At a more local scale, there are a number of groups throughout the south west who have purchased property for conservation purposes. The Lake Mealup Preservation Group, the Margaret River Farming Conservation Club and the Middlesex Farming Conservation Club are examples of groups in this category.

What will the future look like?
So we have heard that there are a number of government and non-government initiatives established to support and promote private land conservation. These include a range of tools such as conservation covenants, Land for Wildlife, a revolving fund. As Keith Bradby has outlined in his paper, there are more needed, and hopefully being developed over the next few years.

People participating in private land conservation range from many individuals and farming families, through to non-government conservation organizations as owners and managers. Some of these people and groups have been quietly working for many years; some are relatively new to the 'business'. The area of land being set aside is growing remarkably, particularly over the past 2 - 3 years. This trend shows no sign of abating yet with all programs active in this field reporting an increasing call on their services. Land for Wildlife in WA alone reports that it has a current waiting list 214 properties that are yet to be visited.

What will this mean if this trend continues? Perhaps, like South Australia, the area of private land dedicated to conservation protection and management will eventually equal the area of the public conservation estate. Certainly, the value of the private lands dedicated to conservation in Western Australia will equal the quality of the public conservation estate.

Currently there is no means of accurately reporting on the private land set aside for conservation not only in Western Australia, bur for Australia is a whole. Co-operation will be needed if there is to be any national reporting, and allowance must be made for the quiet achievers who do not really want to be reported on, but to be left to get on with the job at hand.

The balance of how the community shares these costs, recognising the public good derived from these activities is also a debate taking shape, with recent contributions from the Productivity Commission, who recognised the importance of this debate in funding both internal and external papers on the topic. The mechanism of ecosystem service credits, currently being explored in a pilot program through CSIRO and its local partners in three catchments nationally, has the potential to play a significant role, if successful. In Western Australia, the Blackwood Basin is a partner in this study.

Perhaps we can look forward in 10 years time to a network of landholders who are making acknowledged significant contributions to the protection and management of Western Australia's conservation estate. And that these landholders are skilled environmental managers, with access to the resources they need to manage their conservation lands, and that includes income streams that are independent of government, as well as a range of state and federal government grants and access to knowledge and technical assistance. There would be a role for volunteers as well.

Ultimately, the landscape will be different for all these activities. One recent group of interested and dedicated people defined what a landscape might look like in a wheatbelt context, with a vibrant private land conservation community. They saw a landscape that was ecologically sustainable, socially amenable and economically viable (setting aside debate on the definitions of these terms for the moment). They also saw a landscape where the number of habitat patches, their distribution and condition were not a limiting factor in the maintenance of biodiversity and ecological processes.

It is only with the contributions of both the public and private conservation sectors, that Western Australia has any hope of retaining the high biodiversity values currently recognised on a global scale.