Excerpt
Landcare in Australia is a community participatory process for encouraging land managers to collaborate in tackling existing and potential problems of land degradation. The operation of landcare is based upon the efficacy o f groups for mobilizing individuals to promote community self-reliance and strengthening social norms that encourage the adoption of sustainable farming practices. This participatory a p proac h-en c ou rage d and fostered by government support-has become a dominant means for implementing policies to improve natural resource management in Australia. Government funding for landcare can be characterized as a relatively large investment ($A82.6 million in fiscal year 2000-2001) allocated in small disbursements to many community groups throughout Australia.
Clarifying the Meanings of Landcare
In Australia landcare means different things to different people, but there are three distinct elements of landcare in Australia. Bureaucratic landcare is characterized by The National Landcare Program (NLY). This is the government managed component of landcare funded under the Federal Government's Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) that provides a national, strategic approach to natural resource management. NHT hnding decisions are determined at a combination of federal and state levels; disbursements to landcare groups are administered at the …
Footnotes
John Cary is a principal scientist at the Bureau of Rural Sciences, Canberra, Australia, and a principal fellow at The Institute of Land and Food Resources, University of Melbourne. Trevor Webb is a social scientist at the Bureau of Rural Sciences. Australia.
- Copyright 2001 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
