Landcare capacity building




Status:

Advice provided

Advice date:

June 2015 to February 2017

Summary

In March 2015, the NSW Government announced the Local Landcare Coordinators Initiative – a NSW Government program delivering $15 million in funding over four years to build the capacity of local Landcare groups. Government intended that this program would deliver additional funding to Landcare and community groups, and would not displace any support that is currently provided to these organisations through Local Land Services.

Model to deliver Local Landcare Coordinators Initiative funding

The NSW Government asked us to facilitate a roundtable process with Landcare NSW, Local Land Services, Department of Primary Industries and Office of Environment and Heritage to collaboratively develop a model to deliver the Local Landcare Coordinators Initiative funding.

We led a co-design process to develop a program delivery partnership model. The key features of the model included:

  • the majority of funds going to community-based local coordinator positions (75 percent)
  • structures designed to strengthen partnerships between Local Land Services and Landcare
  • joint oversight at a state scale through a Joint Management Committee
  • competitive tenders for coordinator positions at a regional scale, jointly assessed by Local Land Services and Landcare
  • resources dedicated to developing and pursuing options for future financial sustainability.

Both Landcare NSW and Local Land Services supported the model.

Landcare baseline study

In February 2017, we conducted a baseline study to determine Local Land Services’ expenditure on Landcare and community groups in 2014-15. This study formed part of the monitoring and evaluation component of the Local Landcare Coordinators Initiative. Our final report found that:

  • eleven Local Land Services regions spent in total approximately $17 million supporting Landcare and other community groups in 2014-15. Expenditure varied across Local Land Services regions
  • approximately 84 percent of support for Landcare and other community groups was provided as grants and over 15 percent provided as funding for dedicated support staff, mostly Regional Landcare Facilitators and Community Support Officers
  • seventy percent of Local Land Services expenditure on Landcare and community groups was paid for using revenue received from the Australian Government, including funding received under the National Landcare Programme, Caring for Our Country and other Australian government funding programs. A further 28 percent of expenditure was paid for using revenue from the NSW Government’s Catchment Action NSW. The remaining 2 percent was paid for using NSW Treasury funding and other funding sources.

The Local Land Services and Landcare NSW Joint Management Committee provided a response to this report. In summary, the Joint Management Committee will use this report as an input for building collaborative partnerships with Landcare and other community groups.

Key documents