About Landcare

http://www.landcarensw.org/

http://www.landcareonline.com/

Landcare is a national network of more than 4000 locally-based community groups and many thousands of volunteers in towns and rural areas across the country. It is a unique partnership between communities, government and organisations that is achieving great things for the environment, and all around Australia Landcare volunteers are proving that together we can repair and viably manage our precious natural resources.

Landcare groups are formed by people with a common concern about the quality of the land and water in their local region. Volunteers undertake a wide range of activities, including on-ground projects, research, and raising community awareness. Often Landcare groups provide a social network in their communities.

The movement had its genesis in land management groups formed by Australian farmers in the 1930s and 1940s. In the late1970s, under government agency encouragement, volunteer groups began to form to combat soil erosion at a district scale.

In the mid-1980s the Victorian Government introduced a program where community groups were actively involved in planning and implementing natural resource management projects. The approach was to deal with several land degradation issues rather than single issues and the groups were neighborhood based rather than peer based. In 1986 this program was registered in Victoria under the name of LandCare.

In the late 1980s the Dunecare program was developed in NSW with the formation of community groups along the coast. The success of Dunecare provided a model for developing independent and autonomous Landcare groups in NSW. Although there were some Landcare type groups in NSW before 1989, it was during this year that Landcare started to accelerate.

Landcare today is a uniquely Australian organisation that shows how grassroots action, with national support, can help people to look beyond the doom and gloom of environmental problems.

In his book, Landcare - Communities Shaping the Land and the Future, Andrew Campbell writes: "The issues Landcare is tackling are of vast scale and complexity and it is easy to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the task. But one cannot experience at first hand the excitement and the commitment of the people actively involved in Landcare without becoming infused with hope."

Many primary producers are active participants in Landcare. They make significant contributions to combating soil salinity and erosion through sound land management practices and sustainable productivity. More than 40 per cent of farmers are involved in Landcare and many more practice landcare farming.

Breathing new life into waterways

Rivercare groups work to conserve, rehabilitate and better manage our river systems.

Around the coast

Coastcare groups are active in improving local coastal and marine environments.

Bringing back trees

Each year landcarers plant many millions of native trees, shrubs and grasses for a range of benefits, including better soils, water and air quality. They restore bushland and conserve sensitive areas in public and on private land.

Restoring wildlife habitats

Landcare volunteers have provided protection for thousands of native species, including threatened and endangered flora and fauna.

Urban action - protecting our urban environment

Active landcare groups in Australia’s towns and cities invest inestimable time and effort each year working to tackle local environmental issues of most concern to their communities