Tackling our many challenges is a case of everyone in the Northern and Yorke region knowing where everyone else is heading.
We all want our future generations to inherit a healthy and sustainable environment.
Unfortunately human impact, including climate change, has made this wishful thinking up to now.
Sustainable policies and procedures in our work and lifestyle are a greater priority than ever.
Our lives are linked to our natural assets. People in Northern and Yorke are aware of this, and are preparing what is described as a “road map to guide our journey towards improving and protecting our natural resources”.
The Natural Resources Act of 2004 recognises that we can no longer manage natural systems in isolation.
Under the Act, eight Natural Resources Management Boards have been established in South Australia. These regions set NRM targets through partnerships between governments, private and community sectors, and individuals.
They are also developing comprehensive NRM Plans for integrated management of soil, water, biodiversity, coasts and the near-shore marine environment in the regions.
As part of its plan, the Board has consulted widely to define the natural assets of the Northern and Yorke region. It is also building on past achievements by organizations, groups and individuals dedicated to catchment and coastal care, soil conservation, and animal and plant control.
The Board has identified the following major threats to our natural resources:
- unsustainable use of water supplies and disruption to natural water regimes
- excessive use and diversion of surface and groundwater supplies
- degradation and fragmentation of natural ecosystems and continuing loss of natural biodiversity
- declining soil health, pests and diseases that limit primary production
- coastal and marine degradation
The objective of the Board’s NRM Plan is to ensure the protection and enhancement of regional natural ecosystems while sustaining primary production, local economies, social and community wellbeing.
While a 50-year vision is an integral part of the Plan, it also features key milestones, including resource condition targets within a 20-year timeframe and management action targets over a five-year period.
Specific strategies and actions provide detail and clarity to a wide range of projects dealing with natural resources, as well as the region’s economy, community understanding and involvement. Funding and specific expertise will be directed to these projects. The draft NRM Plan will go out for public consultation later this year.
Mervyn Lewis, the Presiding Member of the Northern and Yorke NRM Board, was first to call the Plan a road map. “It is an important tool which will act as a road map to guide our journey towards improving and protecting our natural resources,” he says.
“Technical expertise and experience will be supplied up by community members’ NRM experience and local passion. We will have a document to guide our collective activity and enable us to secure Government support and investment.”
Implementation of the Northern and Yorke NRM Plan is expected to begin from next year.
Purple Cockatoo orchid and Hoverfly Photo by David Sloper |
Sea shells at Wallaroo on Yorke Peninsula coast Photo by David Sloper |
Flock of sheep near Minlaton on Yorke Peninsula Photo by David Sloper |