National Forum

Achieving a Ten-fold Increase in environmental philanthropy: Tax Incentives, Conservation Trusts, Capacity Building and Cultural Change
Abstract for Carl Binning
CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
Working with Private Giving
9:30-9:45am, Wednesday, 22 March 2001

This talk will briefly reflect on progress in environmental philanthropy and private lands conservation in Australia in the last five years. It will then move on to identify four key challenges that need to be addressed to secure a ten-fold increase in private conservation.

1. Communicating the Conservation Challenge: The need for private investment in nature conservation is not well understood by the broader Australian community. It is not generally known that many of our most endangered ecosystems are found on privately managed land within coastal lowlands and agricultural regions of Australia. Key challenges include the capacity to sell this message to concerned city dwellers and to develop improved understanding of the linkages between production and conservation in fragmented landscapes.
2. Building Effective Partnerships: Australia has many success stories in private lands conservation including the work of Trust for Nature (Vic), the Australian Bush Heritage Fund, The National Trust (WA), World Wide Fund for Nature and Greening Australia. However, success is occurring at too small a scale. A key challenge for leading organisations is to develop partnerships with new players and then to build the capacity of these organisations to deliver successful conservation programs.
3. Securing Private Funding: Funding is often argued to be the major impediment to private lands conservation. What scope is there to secure greater private sector investment? Many argue that unlike Americans, Australians are not philanthropic. This assumption is challenged highlighting the need for tax reforms to signal the philanthropic market and the potential for markets for environmental services secure greater corporate and private giving.
4. Accounting for Contribution of Private Conservation: Nobody in Australia is able to quantify the contribution of existing investments in private conservation to meeting Australia's conservation objectives. The current "currency" of success is the creation of National Parks. The growth of private lands conservation will be stifled unless accounting systems are established that demonstrate the cost effectiveness of private conservation. The development of Conservation Management Networks and biodiversity credits are highlighted as possible pathways forward on this difficult issue. National Forum - Taking Care of the Bush